carolina, democratic national convention. stratagem for missed opportunity. \[inaudible/] is that going to help carry north carolina or not? >> i didn't know if we had to be recognized. it was a great idea at the time for sure. \[laughter] again, i hit on the point earlier, and i'll be quick about this. racial coalition building was actually quite significant in this state. and still, in the state legislature there are people who can appeal to folks in a racially missed constituency, and that's true both for whites who have done that traditionally in the south but also for african-americans. i think for a variety of reasons, some of them dealing with external factors, the

economy not doing especially well has not been good for white, working-class voters, which is one part of that coalition. but also, again, given all these different changes that are -- if they are affected, likely to limit african-american voter turnout. that, too, could be a real threat to the democratic party. but the extent to which one thinks in the long term, there have to be inroads in the south. the population is moving southward and westward. so if you're going to be competitive in the long term, you've got to have an imprint here. so whether or not in this election it's effective, i leave to others to discuss, but i think at least as an initial decision, it wasn't a dumb one. >> hodding, do you want to add a thought to that? >> no. it goes on at some length, and i won't. >> all right. another question. yes, sir, right here. >> we talked about race, voting, taxes, poverty, education.

we have not talked about the deficit. would you comment on that in the context of the south and north carolina. >> peter, do you want to jump on that first? >> i think we had a pretty good solution in some ways to an initial approach to the deficit problem coming in part from one of our native sons. it's been lost in some ways, i think, by january 1, 2013, some version of that will come back, regardless of who gets elected. i think the bigger problem right now, i think -- and i think what you'll hear next week -- is that it's too soon, really, to worry in great -- right now about the deficit.

bond rates, interest rates are so low right now. the economy is still in a very precarious position. so i think at least in charlotte next week there will be higher priority economic issues than the deficit at least over the next six months. >> for someone like me, anyway, we do have an economic deficit which is challenging and powerful. we also have a priorities deficit, it seems to me. a country doesn't have to come to the conclusion, for example, that it's going to tax capital gains at half the rate that you're going to tax much of the income of the rest of the workforce. it doesn't have to decide that we're going to have a great and powerful housing project in the united states, that is the mortgage deduction. it's just that maybe 80% of it is going to go to those making over $100,000 a year. our state legislature doesn't

have to, as they did just a few weeks ago, cut $350-something million to wealthier corporations, as they decide to cut in half the allocation to food banks, giving everything that's going on -- given everything that's going on in north carolina. so i do think we have an economic deficit and we have a money deficit as well. >> ray, it's amazing to me that we have managed in the process of our lives together to take off the table from any kind of intelligent conversation whatsoever a military budget which has no relationship whatsoever to what faces us as an international threat, that we are paying in our military side as if we faced five russians simultaneously in the soviet union days and need to keep raising that budget, democrat and republican. now, look, if the wise men of the simpson bowles commission or the bowles-simpson commission really were serious about what they were doing as opposed to

taking three from category a and three -- they would have been done something very, very serious, not the get their attention by letting this damn budget be sort of slashed arbitrarily, but actually have done something on the budgetary spending. not that that's any more solution than taxing people like you and me. but it is part of the solution about which i don't see how you have a solution without. and it's funny, except, of course, we live in north carolina. we live in virginia, and we live in florida. and you know what else lives in north carolina and virginia and florida? the biggest allocation of federal spending that god could

help for in bases and in location of servicemen who are the great pump-priming example that southerners love and pretend is not federal pump- priming. i mean -- anyway. \[laughter] >> we don't get a lot of the actually military construction. i mean, it's mostly base money, i think. >> we already paid it out, boy. come on. >> i think our defense budget is more than the next 17 countries combined, something like that. >> maybe 40. >> question, question. yes, sir. >> i'd like to ask the panelists, how long can we continue to go down this path that you have all described without addressing a single one of the issues that confront us today? how long can we continue down this path? >> i woke up one day and i said to myself, why is it that in a set of circumstances which in other places and other times would have had people out marching, would have people out at levels of protests which would be hair-raising, we don't

have any of it, that somehow we are at a stage of acceptance, resignation, passivity, intimidation -- no, i don't think intimidation, but there's something out there that we're drinking. and i'll be honest with you, because i despise much of the medium except the one that my dear friend is working with, one of the things you've got which you never had in society before was an ability to flip a switch and quit thinking about anything except the entertainment in front of you. you don't sit there plotting too many damn revolutions while you're sitting there -- i mean, and i'm a horrible movie- matcher, so i know how it is. but we have a lot of stuff that we are able to do, which is escapist stuff, which will take you out of it. i honestly, you know, being a

mississippian, when i think to myself, judy ran a thing on terry sanford six years ago, five years ago up here and it was a great thing about him. but the thing about terry which so got us who were elsewhere was he went right to the heart and said, look, let's talk about education. let's talk about something that actually affects everybody. who the hell is talking about something that actually affects everybody? and you asked the question how long that can go on. i do not know. i don't understand it. but y'all are all smart. why is it, big boy? theme the man that brings out into the streets. huh? >> i guess the question is, what comes next? >> yes, sir, i know, i know. >> who wants to tackle that? \[laughter]

yes, right here. >> thank you. richmond,aughter of virginia, but from college on i've lived in the godless state of massachusetts, and i am struck again by my return to the south of how prominent the racial lens is. and as we know, lenses can illuminate, but they can also obfuscate. so without denying the importance of race as a factor in many of the south's trends, stories, narratives, how would you characterize the lens of gender, of women? white southern women, women of color from the south, are there differences based on data, based on, you know, oral history reports of women's perspectives on life here compared to other regions of the country? love to hear something about women.

>> jacquelyn, do you want to weigh in, and if either scott or farrell have some data they want to throw in as we. >> yeah, i was really struck that -- >> why did you pick jackie? \[laughter] >> i was raising my hand. i was struck that in the beginning when we were talking about even the polling data we didn't -- gender didn't come up at all. we didn't hear anything about abortion and so on. but then -- this is a really complicated question, and i just would say two things about it. one is that -- and, again, this comes from the work that the program is doing. we are now focusing on documenting the women's movement in the south. and contrary to the assumptions that there wasn't a women's movement in the past, there was and there is, and there's been a very powerful one which needs to

be understood and seen more clearly. but it is also true that to my mind -- and this hasn't come up. one of the biggest things that obama has going for him is the gender gap. this is so important. i mean, without the gender -- without -- and women have been -- there's been a gender gap for i don't know how many of the last elections, in which women went from -- including women in the south, went for bill clinton in much larger proportions than white men, i'm talking about. however, the gender gap has been narrowing in the south, so that -- in 2008 i think the gender gap in the south, unlike anywhere else, almost closed.

i don't think there was any difference between white men and white women voting in 2008. 2012 i don't know. i know in north carolina the polls are showing that there still is a gender -- with white women going for obama more than white men but the gap is not as great in the rest of the country. when you look at women of color, then that changes completely and the gender gap opens back up again. so i think that one of the big challenges that the democrats have and the progressive forces have is to address themselves to women in the south and to open that gender gap back up. >> all right. i'm told by the bosses here that we are going to wrap up. it is just after 2:00. i want to thank everyone for coming. but let's 'thank these extraordinary panelists for their presentations. \[applause]

and thank farrell guillory and scott keeter with their hands host: but the dnc will gavel in tomorrow. they're out the day a lot of festivities. there is a carolina festival going on. we will show you some scenes of that. the president is making his way to town. he has a lot of events this week. let us tell you what is going up. we will have a live event with

the president. he is in toledo today. he will be speaking at a high school. his intention is to trump and his success. we will be hearing this scene. we have a life program with the national journal. adam conner is the facebook manager for policy. at our preview program of the democratic national convention gets under way at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. he also will be intervening the head of the rnc, reince priebus. they are making plans to counter

the arguments made at the democratic national convention. that is what is coming up. we hope you can spend some time with us. today is a busy day. they're just getting a sense of the arrivals. >> are you delegate?

>> no. >> from our live picture we will take you now to downtown charlotte n.c. and the convention organizers met today on labor day. it is open on the public so people can get a sense of what it is like. we are very close to the convention center. the streets are closed off. no ticket or charged to come here in the vicinity. we come down and walk the

streets. there are all sorts of exhibits related to politics. james taylor will be one of the people performing.

start withing to fresh tomatoes. what we have behind you is some fresh basil. we chopped it up. we are risking that up. we're adding some fresh garlic. everything we're going to add

is 100% all natural. same thing about the dough. it is all natural and healthy. while she mixes that up, at the last thing we are going to add is some fresh oregano. there are only about 6 1/7 innings. you can make this at home. it is going to taste great. at some fresh oregano. dd some fresh oregano. >> that is a quick look from south carolina fest. it is pretty impressive humidity.

folks are dressing for the inappropriate weather conditions. organizers are hoping that the day will continue to bring more people down for a look at the convention. more delegates are rife. the democratic convention has many more delicate. this is an increase from about 4400 that they have in the year 2008. there also telling us that they have 100 more hispanic delegates and a half in 2008. let me tell you what the schedule is like. tuesday when the gavel comes down, and they will be officially considering the democratic platform. a lot of coverage of those hearings. jimmy carter will be addressing the group. gillian castro has her podium.

this begins at 5:00 p.m. eastern time and will finish somewhere around 11:00. the long day is on wednesday. fo bill clinton will deliver the nominating speech for barack obama. there'll be an official roll call on wednesday night. on thursday the agenda moves to the bank of america stadium. there is considerable discussion about the weather here. they are calling for afternoon thunderstorms. a lot of discussion about whether or not the event will go on outside are they will have to move it back inside. some people are saying rain or shine. the schedule includes the former candidate himself, john kerry. also joe biden will be giving

his acceptance speech and in the president's succession speed birgit acceptance speech. there is a lot more detail at -- the president's acceptance speech. there's a lot more detail. lots of twitter aggregation and many other opportunities to feel a part of what is going on. c-span.org/campaign2012 is the website. tim is a political reporter for the hometown newspaper. here is just a bit of what he had to say. after that, we are waiting for live coverage from the president. >host: joining us now is tim

funk. is the arina ready to go for the convention? guest: it looks like it is. i was there friday. i think there have been $7 million over seven winkweeks. it has a 60 foot high a rate of screens and all types of patriotic symbols. the delegation is sitting up front. host: tell us about the preparations for charlotte over the six months or year. what does the process been like? guest: there is a charlotte host committee that has been preparing welcome parties for the delegates which happened last night. a big party for the press.

it is the home of the biggest bank in the country. they have a reputation for being a can-do city. you see all of these electric cars with hookups. they have been trying to prepare the city, spruce it up. meanwhile they charged with raising the money to pay for the actual convention. that has been a little more difficult than in previous years. the president of a restriction on them that they could not accept any corporate cash or money from lobbyists.

there are lots of loopholes they can take. they can take in kind contributions from corporations. they will not tell us how they are doing. everybody seems excited. host: according to the bureau of labor statistics, the unemployment is charlotte is about 10%. you mean bank of america is headquartered in charlotte? the stadium where the president will be accepting his nomination is called the bank of america stadium. when you look at downtown

charlotte, is it a walkable? is it walkable for the delegates or are the hotels spread out? tell us about a downtown during the convention. guest: it is one of the most compact cities i think they have ever had. it is walkable ordinarily. it is not 6 1/7 blocks from the time warner cable arena. -- six or seven blocks from the time warner cable arena. there also spread out in other counties nearby. they are being shuttled in every day. they have that pretty easy. there is a lot of fences. there is a lot of police presence. there has been a lot of

protesters. there are several streets closed downtown. it is ok to get around. today t hey are having a carolina fast. they're bringing in james taylor. they're helping people will come downtown. the shirt and the convention by a day to give -- a shortened the convention by a date to allow them to feel like they are a part of the convention. host: tim funk, if we hear the term uptown, it means

downtown? why is it? guest: it is a chamber of commerce bank probably. when i made to charlotte in 1990, it was not an advertise a downtown. there is not a lot to do. now it is really quite different. a lot of people live downtown. we opened some great museums. i think a lot of people will be impressed by uptown. it is a way, it is on a hill. host: mary anthony xbox will be a guest tomorrow. -- anthony fox will be a guest tomorrow. a 32% increase in population in

the past 10 years or so. more parades' them protests. guest: i saw a little bit of this. there are a lot of anti-war protesters. they seem to be enjoying themselves. there is a lot of singing. >> we're going to lead this conversation. he can find the rest of that at the c-span video library. we go to ohio to join president obama at a labor day rally. [cheers and applause]

>> hello, the no. toldeo. [cheers and applause] thank you. thank you. it is good to be in toldeo, ohedo, ohio. thank you. >> chanting "obama, obama." >> thank you so much. i have to say thank you for that outstanding introduction.

give her a big round of applause. i was listening backstage. i thought i heard a little preaching going on. folks in the crowd were going "yeah" and "well." it is great to see so many good friends -- >> i love you. >> i love you back. [cheers and applause] it is great to see so many good friends to work so hard on behalf of working families everyday. we have one of the best centers in the country. when it the best congresswoman in the county.

ry. we have my friend and your friend, our secretary of labor, hilda solis in the crowd. we have your outstanding usw president in the house. and the president of the national association of education. we have some working people in the house here. to everybody who is working hard each and every day, happy labor day.

happy labor day. now -- >> [inaudible] >> t hank you. fell free to take a seat. i have some things to say. for those of you who do not have a seat, make sure to bend your knees a little bit. we do not want you thinking. if folks stand too long a drop off. -- t hey drop off. we are on our way to our convention in charlotte this week. i wanted to stop here to spend this day with you. a day that a lot to the working men and women of america.

teachers and factory workers, construction workers and students and families and small business owners. i know we have some proud auto workers in the house. after all, it is working folks like you who bought for jobs and opportunity for generations. it is working people like you who helped delay the cornerstone of middle-class security. the things that people now take for granted but were not always there. a 40 hour work week. weekends. paid leave of. pension. minimum-wage. health care. social security. and medicare. those things happened because

working people organized and mobilize. ed. unions like yours helped forge bargain they must prosperous economy the world has ever known. -- the most prosperous economy the world has ever known. you know the bargain. it says, if you work hard, if you are responsible comment in your work should be rewarded. if you put enough effort you should be able to find a job that pays the bills. he should afford a home to call your own. you can have health care you can count on if you get sick. you can put enough away to

retire and put away a vacation once in awhile. nothing fancy. you can enjoy your friends and family. you can provide your children with an education to make sure that they do even better than you did. it is an american promise that are oro matter how you you what you look like or your last name, no matter who you love, you can make it here if you try. that is what we are fighting for. that is why i am running for a second term as president of the united states of america.

the other party gave their sales pitch down in florida. >> boo. >> do not boo, vote. [cheers and applause] vote. it was something to see. despite all the challenges that we face in new century, we saw three straight days of an agenda out of the last century. it was a rerun. you might as well have watched it on black and white television with the rabbit ears on it. it should of been on nick at

nite. if you did not dvr it, let me give you a recap. the economy is bad. fault.all obama's gov. romney has a secret to creating jobs in growing the economy. that is the basic summary. they spent the most time on me. they were talking about me. there were a lot of hard truths but no one bothered to tell you what they were. when governor romney had his chance to let you in on the secret sauce of jobs creation,

he did not offer you a single new idea. it was just a retread of the same policies that have been sticking it to the middle class four years. -- for years. then he came here to ohio and he said he will be the coach that lead america into a winning season. the problem is everybody has already seen his economic playbook. we know what is in it. on the first down, he hiked taxes by nearly $2,000 with an average family with kids to pay with a massive tax cut for multimillionaires. that is on first down. it sounds like an unnecessary roughness to me. [cheers and applause]

on second down, he undoes reforms that are there to burke and another bailout. he was to get rid of rules to protect our air and water to make sure health care is there for you. on third down he calls for a hail mary, ending medicare by giving up seniors to pay any additional cost out of their pocket. there is a flag on the play. loss of an additional $6,400 a year for the same benefits you get now. that is his playbook. that is their economic plan.

i have one piece of advice for you about the romney/ryan plan. punt it away. it will not work. it will not win the game. you do not need that coach. that is a losing season. there was one person at the convention he was not entirely on script. no, no. while they were busy telling folks out that everything was, your governor -- >> boo. >> don't boo. >> vote.

>> he stood up there and told everybody that ohio is number one in the midwest and job creation, fourth best in america. that had folks confused. if nothing is going right, what is going on in ohio? the theory was that it was all the governor is doing. i think we need to refresh his memory. a lot of those jobs are auto worker jobs like yours. the american auto industry was flat landing a few years ago. what was in governor romney's playbook?

led detroit to go bankrupt. do you remember that? think about what that would have meant for america. if we had turned our backs on you, if america had thrown in the towel like that. gm and chrysler would not exist today. the suppliers and distributors that get their business from these companies would have died off, too. even ford could have gone down as well. production shutdown. once proud companies chopped up and sold off. all of you who built these companies with your own hands would have been pitched -- benched for good. that is not a good play. we did not run that play. more than 1 million americans would have lost their jobs in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the great depression. in communities across the

midwest, it would have been another great depression. it is not just the workers. thing about everyone who depend on me. schoolteachers. small-business owners. the server in the diner who knows your order before you walk in. the bartender who knows your order before you walk in. their livelihood were at stake as well. so was something else. how many auto workers here worked the assembly lines and your grandparents worked on the same line? how many are second or third or fourth generation? how many of you have sons and daughters that want to work on the same assembly lines?

these jobs are worth more than a paycheck. if they are a source of pride. these companies are worth more than just the cars that they build. they are a symbol of america's innovation. they are a source of our manufacturing might. if that is not worth fighting for, what is/ ? we are not about to take a knee and do nothing. we were not going to get up on your communities. we are not going to lead detroit go bankrupt. i stood with american workers. i stood with american manufacturing. i believe on you. i bet on you. because of that bet, three years later that that is paying off for america. -- that bet is paying off for america.

three years later the american auto industry has come roaring back. more than 250,000 new jobs. it was a little funny watching governor romney and others trying to rewrite history. these are the folks who said if we went forward with our plan then you can "kiss the automotive industry could buy. -- good bye/ ." now they're saying it was their idea all along. they're saying the problem is that you made out like bandits in this whole thing. that we did what we did because it was all about paying back you. really? even by the standards of political campaigns, that is a

lot of you know what. workers may some of the biggest sacrifices. about 700,000 retirees saw a reduction in the health benefits if they earned. hours were reduced. you gave promises for the sake of the survival of your fellow workers and their families and the companies. you made sacrifices. which is why i do not understand why these folks have the nerve to talk about you like your some pretty special interest that need to be beaten down. after all the unions have done to protect the middle class, they were standing up there saying you are responsible for the problems we face. their plans as the best way to help workers is to roll back workers' rights, to make

construction workers get a fair wage, to blame teachers and firefighters and other public servants for our economic challenges. instead of what happened on wall street. what you need to know is this. when they are trying to take your collective bargaining rights away, when they are trying to pass a right to work laws for less and less, you should know this is not about economics. this is about politics. this notion that we should have left the -- lead to the auto industry die is part of the same you are on your own philosophy that says we should leave everybody to fend for themselves. on thursday night i'm going to offer you what i believe is a better path forward.

a pack that it -- a path that will strengthen the middle class. starting on october 2, you get to vote early. you can choose which have we take. you could choose their plan. >> boo. >> do not boo. >> vote. >> you can keep taxes low for every american who is in the middle class and every american who is striving to get in the middle class.

a promise to cut taxes by middle-class families. i have cut taxes by a total of about $3,600 for the family. i making sure it they have not raise a single dime on the first $250,000 of any family. that is 98% of americans. in maybe 99.9% of this auditorium. your taxes will not go up. my belief is you need relief. i do not need relief. mitt romney does not need relief. he needs it less than me. that is a choice in this election. you can choose whether we give up new industries to country like china -- to countries like

china or whether we fight to stay alive and like my opponent, i want to stop giving breaks to companies to ship jobs overseas. i want to get companies breaks that are investing here in toledo. you can decide whether borrowing money from your parents is an answer when a young person asks how they're going to go to college. you heard about that? a college student asks how can i go to helcollege. he said the have to borrow money from your parents. i guess that is one approach. i have a different approach. it says let's make sure americans lead the world in educating our kids in trading

our workers for the jobs that follow. that hire more great teachers, especially in math and science. let's talk more folks go to community colleges to get trained in the skills that employers are hiring for right now. the truth is some sort of higher education is not a luxury anymore. that is an economic necessity that every family should be able to afford. that is what i am going to be fighting for. that is what i'm going to be fighting for. or you can choose and all of the

above strategy for american energy. we drove for more real. we mine for merkel -- mine for more coal. my opponent said renewable energy sources are imaginary. the folks here in toldeo manufacturing solar panels might disagree. these jobs are not imaginary. they are our future. i want to stop giving a $4 billion a year taxpayer subsidy to big oil companies that are making money every time you go to the poump. i want to use that money in homegrown energy sources other creating jobs right here in of ohio. it is that you whether we go

back to the old health care system, went to cover you and drop you. -- win to cover you and drop you. i think we should move forward come. they call it obamacare. it is true. i care. it is true. the other plan is the romney does not care plan. now is that the time to read fight the battle that lasts for years. we need to move forward. you get to decide what the future of the war in afghanistan is. did you notice governor romney did not say a word about our troops who were in harm's way?

because of my plan, at 33,000 of them will have come home by the end of this month. he said ending the war in iraq was tragic. i said we would go after al qaeda. we did. i said we would take out osama bin laden. we did. our troops are out of iraq. we are bringing them home. as long as i am commander in chief, we will serve our veterans as well as a surge us.

no one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job when they come home. that is why i am running for a second term. we have some big choices we have to make. the other side is going to spend the next two months. and they're fighting back with everything they got. they are going to get your an avalanche of insults and distraction. they may massage the truth a little bit. they will be supportive of him million-dollar checks from wealthy owners. they know even if you do not buy into their plan, even if you do not vote for them, maybe we will

discourage people and give people so disillusioned by all negativity that you will decide to sit this one out. do you know what? i am counting on you. i am counting on you. if you're not registered to vote, you have to go to gotta register.com. gottaregister.com. if you want to find out how to vote early, started on october 2, then you need to go to gottavote.com. that is not "got to."

that is "gotta." we gotta whole lot of more work to do. we have more jobs to create. we have more schools to help. more young people to send to college. we have more troops we need to bring home and more veterans we have to take care of and more doors of opportunity that we have to open up for everybody who is willing to walk through. that is the stake in this election. that is why i am asking for your vote. that is why i need you to knock on doors. that is why i need you to get on the phone. i need you to talk to your friends and neighbors. i need you to stand with me, ohio.

if we win toledo, we will win ohio. if we win ohio, we will win this election. if we win this election, we will finish what we started. we will remind the world why the united states of america is the greatest nation on earth appeared thank you. god bless you. god bless america. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪

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♪ >> ladies and gentleman, please remain in your seats. >> president obama's labor day speech in toledo, ohio, where you heard a number of themes about the auto industry -- using the statistics that one out of the jobs in ohio are connected

to the auto industry. also exerting people to vote during that speech today. later on, the president travels to new orleans. this is a non-campaign event where he gets in touch with people there about the recovery from hurricane is it last week. -- hurricane i sec along the coast last week. we have about 20 minutes left until our next event which will be our live panel session with the national journal on social media and the campaign. we will bring you live coverage from charlotte. we carried coverage from the national journal from the republican convention last week. we're going to open our phones so you can answer questions and comment on the general campaign. we will take your tweets at the hash tag @cspan2012.

we will start with one -- president obama fights for autoworkers while romney and rye and both sublet them go bankrupt. obama stands with working families. here is another -- if we win toledo, we will win ohio, if we win ohio, we will win this election. boom! here is another -- about's give to the unions cost taxpayers $30 billion. we paid for the car, we just didn't get. caller: i think one thing if

ameritech voters take the time out on labor day to listen to what the president of the united states has to say and what his vision is and of the bible states that without a vision, people will perish. this president has a vision for america. it is not exclusive, it is inclusive. they are including everybody. if we remember the last time a rich businessman ran for president of the united states, it was mr. herbert hoover. we all know he ran for the presidency under the republican party. look what and up to this country back when mr. hoover had it. it mr. franklin delano

roosevelt almost four terms to take care of that mess. the majority of the american people are still getting out of what the former president bush took us into and mr. romney offers nothing. mr. ryan is going around the country beating a dead horse. he offers mediscare instead of concise construction for medicare. they want to take your social security and all of your pension funds and union funds and everything else and put them into a brokerage and give them to a ceo on wall street so they can do it like if you went with your money to the casita. they want to gamble your money away. they don't offer anything for

education, they want to get your college young persons tuition funding, they want to take away nasa, they want to cut pbs, they want to probably even take away c-span. >> they won't be able to do that final thing because we do not get public funding. but thank you for your telephone call. you are looking at pictures from the carolina fest, an event open to the public today which invites people in the charlotte area to come downtown and get a sense of what is happening with the convention. there are all kinds of exhibits, some political and some cultural and there are musical acts, including james taylor performing later today. next is dave in omaha, neb., a republican. caller: the president referred to a secret sauce as if it were some kind of mystery. i would submit the romney plan

is the same plan president reagan used to cause a great recovery after the disastrous years of jimmy carter. the peak -- the thing people need to come to grips with is they're paying more for gas, food, clothing, and just about everything. if they think president obama's plan has worked the last three years, what is making them think it will work in the future? to my mind, the issue this are they going to believe president obama or their own lying eyes? host: next is fred in toledo, a democrat. the president was in your home town. and sure you watched the speech. what did you think? caller: i thought was a great visit here. what i don't understand about the republican party -- president obama has everything right on target. they want ideology purity, they don't believe in information,

they don't believe in science, they want to demonize education, they want to take women's bodies and do whatever they want with them, and if we were in another country, we would call them taliban. we do have an american taliban. i want to know why do my republican friends who i think there are some good republicans left, why do they allow this tea party mentality to it -- to persist? the have to take back control of the party so we can take back control of the country and advance and have legitimate compromises so everybody moves forward as a community and this bs about red individualism and giving everything to the rich -- i really don't understand the mentality of the people i consider for a long people a time that you are republicans, they put up with this crap. obama has got it and anybody who doesn't vote for obama, they

should be ashamed of themselves because the tea party, the only thing they want to do just like that taliban and other parts of the world, if you don't let everybody vote, it everything goes to you know where in a handbasket. host: you just saw some scenes from the airport. all of the greeters to make sure delegates and a media still arriving today get to where they need to get before the convention opens. -- let's get back to some comments from twitter -- here is another one -- we will do one more -- next is a call from pompano

beach, fla., a republican. caller: thank you. i loved c-span. i watched the republican convention in you did a wonderful coverage. i'm just torn. i think romney really cares and i feel obama deserves a second chance. something about ryan just does not sit well with me. host: what are you going to do? caller: i'm going to watch the democratic convention and hopefully i will have a better mind-set and my mind made up. host: how important will the debates before you? caller: i forgot about them. very important. i will be watching them. it has been a very emotional election for me. host: why is that? caller: my dad was a real

political junkie. i just wish he was here to see it. host: thank you for watching our coverage. next up is susan from virginia, an independent. susan, go ahead, please. let's move on to our next call from spring valley, priscilla is a democrat. you are on the air. caller: thank you very much. i was very inspired by the president's speech today. few points i want to make. i listened to the republican convention and it amazes me how so many people from the republican party do not want specifics from romney and ryan. everything they said, you can fact check and they absolutely lied. they totally lied. they have no cares about lining and the people who vote for them

don't expect -- will allow them to lie, and they buy into it. my friends who are republicans say we are about pro-life. so am i, but if you are pro-life but you don't want the mother to have medical assistance, you don't want to protect our jobs, how much care do you really have for that baby that is in the womb if you're going to cut back on health care and other things like education? that's just common sense to me when people talk about the republican party is built on saying a lie -- say shall never stand. no. 2, president obama was very diplomatic. he did not say they lied, but they did. i also want point to the fact that how can this country go through what they went through it eight years of bush and they will go out and vote to return to that same politics that

romney and rye and is projecting -- to give to the rich and it will trickle out, hopefully out of the compassion of their heart, they will give to the people that need it. they have taken this into debt after that and it's always the democratic party that brings us up out of a like the clinton times. it amazes me that the thinking of the people on the right, especially that the party, they remind me of the taliban. the destruction of this country is something they are after. how is that so? the simple fact that we are a democracy but we are standing by and allowing the republican party to take away voting rights, yet we go around the world talking about a democracy and freedom to speak and that very foundation, the fact of this country, the ability to vote, we sit by and allow them

to play games so they can maintain a one-party system. this sounds to me like we are in the middle east with one-party rule. >> thank you very much for your call. about 20 minutes after 1:00 local time. 1:30 as the next line of that s -- next live event. we have just gotten one of those afternoon thunderstorms that it's so strongly in this part of the world. i don't know if you can see it over my shoulder. quite a scattering of the crowd at the carolina fast. with any luck it will be short and bring the temperature down and people can resume the festivities. tell you a little bit about some of the fact that have been published by the local newspapers about this convention. 16,000 hotel rooms booked in more than 160 hotels. they're using 250 buses to transport delegates to the convention center. there is approximately 15,000

members of the media covering the convention. the time warner are read attack seven weeks to transform that arena into the convention hall. you will see some of that later this afternoon, including installing 20 miles of cable and removing 400 seats for the stage, podium, and cameras. we have been recording a short videos with some of the delegates and we will watch one of those next. >> i am from south carolina. the most important issue for me in this election is immigration. thank you. a great day. >> my name is andrew and i may delegate from burlington vermont, we're having a wonderful time. a great host city and i would like to give a shout out to c- span and all my friends watching. >> my name is jake. i'm the chairman of the democratic party and at least to be here in in charlotte, n.c.,

for the 2012 democratic convention. i'm supporting barack obama for president terry >> i am with the colorado delegation. the most important issue for me is health care. i was pleased we got a health care act passed. we should all be supporting the president for that reason. >> i am a colorado delegate at the colorado can't -- at the carolina convention. for presidentote obama for women's right and latino issues and i'm very proud to be voting for him. host: those are just a few of the faces of the delegates at the 2012 national convention. you can see more short video and web exclusivity as and sure clips with your friends and people following you on twitter with our clipping a software. you can follow lot of social media at our convention hub. it is easy to find if you go to c-span.org.

5963 delegates will take part in the convention, that's up from 4419 in 2008 and larger than the number of delegates at the republican convention. eight states have more than 160 delegates. california, florida, pennsylvania and texas -- the major job there is to confirm the nomination of barack obama and joe biden for their campaign for reelection. we are going to take a couple of ts:ls and tweake susan sense of this --

let's go back to calls. next is a viewer named scott watching in sidney, ohio, a republican. caller: happy labor day. host: thank you very much. caller: i was just wanting to let most of the people know out there that barack obama, it's nothing more than that the allies and rhetoric we have heard for the past three years. taxes went up, gas has doubled since he has been in there because every time he taxes a company, we the people have to turn around and pay the difference. the housing market collapsed because everybody blames george bush, right? what they fail to remember is the senate and congress were both ran by democrats, they boast past the housing bill with no regulations whatsoever. anybody on the street without a

job could get a loan for house and it collapsed. but they want to blame george bush. this man is not right for our country. he has no plan for moving ahead, the only plan is to raise more taxes and slowly, slowly deteriorated america. that is his plan. democrats, liberalism means you have a mental disorder. wake up, america. >> up next, a theresa, and -- teresa, an independent. caller: thank you for having me. i watched c-span and i watch cnn. i'm from north carolina. one of my questions is the fact that i watched the republican convention and i watched barack obama. i have not quite made a mind

yet, but one of my questions is i'm a christian. they seem at the republic convention, they seem to have skirted the issue of mormon is ism and exactly what this. i did a little research on what is and i found out that the mormons do not believe in mary having jesus as a virgin and the mormon church has 12 apostles and there is the leader of the church that does the pricing to whomever. they do not mention god and

whomever this person is, -- host: let me interrupt you as opposed to explaining the mormon theology as a non-mormon. why is this important to you as a voter? >> i truly believe the leader of the united states should believe in god. you can be a giver and someone who helps other people, but you should be saved by the grace of god. the only way in which to get to heaven. mormons believe in a place called kobol. host: so this will be a deciding factor in the fall? caller: yes, it will.

host: thank you for your call. but me tell you what is coming up as the convention schedule gets underway. tomorrow, the gavel comes down and the session officially begins. we are expecting that at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. tomorrow, the major piece of business is the platform. former president jimmy carter will be speaking by video and first lady michelle obama will be speaking to the attendees at primetime hour, 10:00 p.m. on wednesday night, the longest day of the session, expected to go past midnight -- elizabeth warren, bill clinton's nominating speech, some activity on twitter this afternoon with people suggesting that former president has not yet sent his speech in for betting. then there is the official roll call of the states. finally, the big night, on thursday, which moves from the

convention center -- the time warner are read that to the bank of america stadium, that is when john kerry speak on national security and the expected speeches by the vice-president and president barack obama. we will have live coverage here and you can find our supplemental but -- supplementary material easily from our web site. don't forget, we are announcing becauser's student cam it is back-to-school time. we are inviting students to produce a video on a topic that interests them. at the theme this year is your message to the president. middle and high school students, you can find information to get ready to work on the contest this year. more than 1000 in stock -- more than 1000 entries come in every year. we hope you will take part if you are in that age group and tell us your message to the

president who is sworn in in january of 2013. next up is the key watching as in texas, a democrat. are you there? caller: i am a supporter of president barack obama. he is doing an excellent job. i heard his speech and i support him all the way. my prayers are with him and i think got for his health-care plan that got approved because so many people need health care. it is not about black or white or this color or their color or rich or poor, it's the american people getting what is needed for those that cannot afford it. i thank him for the education, helping students going to college so they can pay and get health and -- get help and support with telegrams because

not everybody can get a loan and pay it back. i thank him for taking a stand on every issue that concerns the total package of a family from health care, from employment, taxes. everything he is doing is excellent and by and with him all the way. i could get to north carolina for the convention, i would be there. i'm a supporter of what he is doing. his vice-president at a convocation of what he has for the people, i am grateful for what he is doing. host: thank you. a couple more tweets as we round out our coverage here --

next up, a phone call from joe in connecticut, a republican. thank you for running all of these speeches from the last convention in their entirety. everyone was interrupting them. i guess the state is in play. president obama is only leading by single digits, which is totally unusual. i am calling because we are really concerned -- we have of voter fraud problems in connecticut, like in bridgeport, connecticut. the governor's election. we had ballot stuffing as reported by the "new york post." they were stuffing ballots, leaving the polls open two hours later and using reverse 911 calls to get illegal votes out. if we have a chance to beat the

democrats in connecticut, we should be able to have legitimate voting things set up in the state. host: thank you. and going to jump in. as you can see, our next event is starting. this is our live coverage of the national journal's daily briefing on the digital campaign and social media's impact on 2012. panelists include major garrett, rest -- correspondent for the "national journal." thank you for watching. >> we will be featuring speakers from google, twitter and facebook. this informative discussion would not be possible that the generous support of our underwriters, so i would like to call them out and think that -- the credit union national association, pfizer, property-

casualty insurers association of america, volkswagen, and the american federation of teachers. for those of us -- for those of you joining us live on c-span or online, you can still be part of the conversation today. those of you in the audience, we encourage you to participate in the conversation at the atwitter. is #dailybriefing. leading the discussion is some of the best and brightest of the business -- major garrett, one of the best known and respected journalist covering the white house for the national journal. prior to joining us compete reported for fox news and served as white house correspondent for cnn.

the next panelist is an award winning journalist and served as national web politics director at the washington post and has worked at the american prospect, the new republic, and national journal magazine. thank you for being here. >> thank you. it's great to have you here. thank you for joining us. welcome to our c-span audience and for those who are watching it streaming on line. it's great to have you with us. i want to give you a quick run of the show. for 10 minutes, we'll have a brief chat about social media and our world. we will have an excellent panel with representatives from facebook, twitter, and google and the obama campaign's digital director. then we will take questions from the audience.

feel free to shed your coat or pour a bottle of water over your head if you need to. i may do that about 30 minutes in, but let's get the conversation started. i know you have many observations and questions on your mind. >> [inaudible] [inaudible] i was in st. paul working at the "washington post" and editing stories live on to the website and home page. i have facebook open in the background because i use their news feed. if you follow certain set of people in politics, you get interesting insights into what

is happening. i had a pop-up which was linked to someone twitter account and through that i got the news that a group of journalists have been arrested outside the convention center. i gave that information to the reporter who was outside who filed a report and we put up on the homepage. it went from a tweet to the homepage of the "washington post" in a matter of 45 minutes. now i think this is a very common experience for journalists. the campaign has set up so much. this cycle, we have a twitter campaign or a lot of the conversation has moved on to twitter.

a reporter from politico was remarking on this recently, what he called the 21 minute news cycle, where he documented that we went to the situation where mayor romney said something, said that no one has ever asked for my birth certificate when he was visiting michigan. he said that at 12:23 and it was tweeted out immediately. within minutes, it was posted online at politico. then you had video of the remarks and by 12:41, the romney campaign had issued a response. within 21 minutes, you have the incident, the report, the counter report and commentary. that is part of the campaign on line these days, moving faster than it has ever been moving. one of the interesting things is that the same time we're seeing

a moment by moment, twitter- driven campaign, we see facebook with a new role of a sharing of social stories. people only share of the things they feel have a little more weight to them. it creates a countervailing force in journalism that is pushing people backed -- [inaudible] one of the things we have seen as we get 40% of our traffic from social charity -- social sharing. that's an extraordinary thing because it gives you an interest in doing a kind of journalism that says it's ok to step out and write a definitive page and all this chatter and something people will want to circulate if i have not been able to follow

things and last 21 minutes. the other interesting thing about that is, especially for headline writing, there is a moment when everyone was writing for a search and now there's a a little less writing for algorithms. google has changed the algorithms some people cannot game them as easily. people are writing for readers. people are writing for human beings again. there was a moment where we were wondering what was going to happen, so it's nice to see things turnaround. [inaudible] >> has anyone been able to hear me? that was mainly what i wanted to say. [laughter] [applause]

we have these different dynamics in journalism right now and i know we are all on twitter all the time and i want to ask major a question about his experience on twitter. you have $60,000. what is your experience like? >> we had this exact same problem in tampa. at least we have solved it for the time being. as of this week, i crossed the 60,000 twitter follower threshold. when i crossed the threshold like that, i send out a thank therecause i'm astonished that many people following. one of the things i do to interact with my audience is every three or four months, i will do a session called "ask major."

i would just throw it open to my twitter fallers. you can find everyone i have done. there are five or six. you can ask anything as long as it is simple. sometimes the people try to find out what my political leanings are or who is your favor press secretary. i don't have a favorite one. they represent though white house and i work for the press corps and we interact professionally. there never is other -- there never satisfied with that. that's one of the ways i try to open up part of who i am. i treat water almost entirely, with a 98%, as a wire service. i just put news on it. don't spend much time talking about what i just eight or what i want to eat or a movie i have just seen. occasionally for the oscars i will do commentary but i just we -- i just treat twitter as a place for things that have caught my eye.

there are some weeks were i will vanished from quarter because i just don't have the energy for it. i know that public destructive at some level of my career but my feeling about twitter is if you are on it, you'd be paying attention. no offense to the twitter representatives here at all, but as i told the young kids to work at national journal, many of whom are just getting into this world of media, i say there is about for ways to advance your career on twitter and about 10,000 ways you can destroy it. just be careful. the carefully say, the carefully talk about and be careful how chirpy you are and extravagant you are about your own professional life -- personal life for professional observations. keep them in the realm of skeptical journalism or understand you are taking substantial risk. i don't need to document for you here some of the risks

journalists uptake and not staying in their own guardrails. she called it an odd moment, but i think everyone in our industry has had an expression of feeling. holy s ibe it as a wholl moment. you are expected to be able to monitor every dimension of the news flow circling all around you in the social the atmosphere. there are times when you feel -- i will speak only for myself -- i feel i'm actually doing reporting, and engaged in an interview and doing what i hope will be substantive news gathering and an hour's worth of social media will have occurred during that time and i look up and i'm like what did i just mess? some days it's a substantial amount and you have to be able to -- i have tried to train myself to get out of it and understand there are moments when you can dip their toes into

it and other times you just have to let it go. if you don't, you'll find yourself constantly circulating and your job begins to slip away from you because you're just writing all these information waves which can be enormously entertaining and enormously time-consuming. the journalism side of this, bribing the waves is something have to do with some degree of -- ridin the waves is something you have to do to some degree. a couple of things -- we have a lot more television advertising this cycle. the campaign's got into it earlier and the superpacs got into it earlier. we have an enormous amount of stories about the amount of money and television advertising. yet this is happening with the trend lives of live television watching are moving in very different directions, -- the

trend lines of live television watching are giving a very direct -- very different directions. this comes from research done by saying media. they surveyed 1500 likely voters across the country. 20 hours of video is consumed by the average american every week. less than half of that is live. the other half is dvr, streaming, or something that's not live television with a commercial component. 31% of likely voters in ohio and florida -- they specialize in those voters -- 31% of likely voters watch no live tv. they told the surveyors in the previous week. if you are in ohio and florida, you are being deluged with superpac obama and run the ads. they told pollsters they watched no live television the previous week. 36% of 18-46 year olds watch

less live tv than they did a year ago. of the 40% of likely voters in florida and ohio have a dvr, 90% say they skipped commercials more than 75% of the time. i'm fascinated by this enormous investment and those of -- the assumption those of us have had about power, the persuasiveness and a freight train effect of television advertising. we may learn on the other side of this campaign because of these changing patterns of moving away from live television, skipping commercials or avoiding an entirely that maybe some of the penetration and historic metrics used to determine whether your advertising was hitting the target and moving voters, all the cliches political campaigns use may not be working. that is one of the topics we will throw up when we gather our gang on the set which we're

going to do right now. we're going to move to the right side of the stage and everyone is going to come up. let's do that right now. >> as you can see, our panel all but the blazer memo. dan got the wrong color on them up. at the far end of this stage, dan seabrook is with us from google politics and elections street next to him is at a sharp, head of government use of

social innovation for quarter. next to him is adam conner, policy manager for facebook and this is not the thing you think it is. i know you were thinking it is that thing. i am told he will be here shortly. if he's in a cab, he will probably never get here. let's start the conversation. give us your observations and whatever you want to throw in about politics and your world as you see it. >> can everybody hear me? i do work on google politics. you might spot our tent at some point as you are walking. we were in tampa as well. we are here for a number of different reasons. we want to have these kinds of conversations about issues and trends that we see. we know and its use our tools

and voters use them as well. i'm producing a number of different google + hang out with a media organizations, including the national journal. the entire convention is being streamed on youtube. there are a number of ways to will plays into the discussion. i think we saw some fascinating moments come out of tampa. i'm happy to be here. >> i think twitter has impacted this cycle considerably. when we look at the republican convention last week in particular, we saw a few things. one, this notion of a return to retail politics. at the idea that people can be directly engaged in the political process on a one-on- one basis, not only interacting with the candidates and issues, but with each other. one thing we saw again and again was real time reaction, the ability to measure and see what

people across the country are reacting to moments, turning to the person next to them on the proverbial global couch and say did you see that? we saw that. beside a big one for the governor romney. president -- we have also seen the tightening of the news cycle. these shifted from may 24-hour news cycle to a 140 character news cycle. when you look at things like clint eastwood speech with check normally would have played out starting with the punditry and then blood into the next day and so on, a lot of that took place before the speech had even and anna before romney had even left the stage, there was an invisible obama twitter account that picked up $20,000.10000

tweets before romney left the stage. -- the second most 3 tweeted picture, where he sent a picture of himself thing this is -- this seat is taken. the mtc in the jobs council, saying this one is not. any consumer can have access to it, not just the so-called boys on the bus. >> i think the point daniel and adam made are great. i'm about to enter my fifth year with facebook and in thinking back to how much things have changed since the last convention and how much technology has rapidly of all been become a gimmick -- become integrated not just in one place, it's not just something that lives in the digital department, it is pervading all the campaigns and changing the media landscape. it is also affecting the voters

and delegates and people having his day to day interactions. tip o'neill used to say all politics is local. we like to say now today that all politics is social. to talk a little bit about major's 0.2 television ads produce the television come to power because of its scale. you couldn't knock on every door in the neighborhood, but through television advertising, you could have a one-wide broadcast and reach everyone. we think the power of social media, the power of facebook is a melding of the reach with the one-on-one interaction you may have gone through door knocking. there are 110,000 facebook pages today. when i started five years ago, there were maybe a dozen. you're seeing state legislators, city councilman, everybody using these technologies to make sure they can have the campaign and are able to operate at much

higher level. you see this in the real time reaction online, you see this -- but the biggest thing we're going to talk about on the facebook side is what are the impact of friends? we know from a lot of research generally that friends and family are the most influential people when it comes to making decisions. decisions's buying are choosing election -- with the power of facebook to see who your friends are supporting and turn them into a messenger so the messenger is not coming from barack obama, but it's coming from my friend steve, we think that is fundamentally something new and very important to the political process. >> is joe here? come on up. the digital chief of the obama campaign. thank you. >> i just want to say all of you guys are very early and i am on

time. introductory remarks? >> where digital out reaches and a difference from 2004 and what is you have seen that has changed or if you would be willing -- i know you try to -- [inaudible] >> this year is different from 2008. everyone on the panel represent opportunities we didn't have in 2008, but fundamentally our court challenge, making sure we are raising money from a broad swath of people giving a little bit rather than concentrating on big donors giving a lot and producing content that is meaningful to people and inspires them, and mobilizing volunteers with new tools we provide and tools that have

emerged over the years remains fundamentally the same. our challenge is to figure out how to tie those things together in a way that makes sense in a total relationship with the end user and in a way they feel good about at the end of the day, which can surprise and delight them but make them feel like they're participating in a concrete civic activity. >> let me ask you about something that is not a state secret, because it is your newest app. it is an organizing tool, very high-end organizing tool for you cannot just only find like- minded people in your neighborhood, which confine voter rolls, previous context from the obama campaign and from your smart fund, with your app become almost an organizer on the spot. talk about how this was developed and why this was developed. this has been out for for five weeks. >> people are really hungry to

have more control over their organizing experience. to be able to go in to the app store and download it and play around with it is to allow you to have an experience that -- even four years ago, especially eight, 10, 12 years ago, would have required to to go into a field office if you had time and were able to get time off of work, you could go and do these things but now you can find that 15 minutes and make some phone calls or find a local event near you. if your plans change, you can discover an event near you. >> i have to ask this question about the e-mail. i know one of the things everyone talked about with the obama campaign is the engagement effort seemed different from last cycle. last cycle, there was more

citizen engagement with the message getting out there and the cycle there is a lot of fund-raising e-mail's which have very cheeky subject headings which people have comment on. i'm just wondering if you could talk about the engagement online this cycle. >> obviously, our political situation is different. we are not in a primary this time and there is not belong building process. last time we had 28 different election days by this point. the natural cadence of communication about what would have been important to someone in ohio or texas or florida through the primary last time would have naturally made for a different kind of relationship. hear it has been about slowly building the infrastructure which is related to the field organization and offices popping up in battleground states and

making sure our messages out there about the choice and when our opponent represents and what we are building. as regards to the fund-raising specifically, we have a landscape changed underneath us. i was very happy last time we were able to see and prove that a campaign built largely on donations could have the ability to succeed in this day and age and that is important to me and to a lot of our donors. with the superpacs, citizens united, the dark money, that is up in the air. if we're going to get outspent two to one or three to one, that's ok. improbably figure out how to win the campaign on the ground. but if we get outspent five to one, 71, 12 to one with these forces that are against us, it's a challenging thing. we have tried to spend a lot of

time educating our donors about the ferocity and dishonesty and frankly well funded nature of our opponents. there has been more of a priority on the fund-raising campaign to date this time, but it shows. we just passed 3 million donors to the campaign in an amount of time -- last time it took us we are doing more with a more challenging and political environment. fe had answered the call. >> i am wondering if they have talked about this engagement questions and the scale and reach that the media companies have a. what does it mean to get 55,000 retweets. how is reaching people? youtube a powerful

video source for anyone to post videos or advertisements. in terms of that engagement, for us, google + handouts are and exciting way for a two-way communication. it is the ability to bring 10 people into a video chat. he can have that conversation with boaters -- voters who are not here. you can post comments. it is a level of engagement we have seen in the past. we were killed when president obama did a hang out with us. it was live on youtube as well. people appreciate that ability to see in. one thing that social media does this breakdown the various.

if you are a fan and major garrett, you can read what he is up to. it really opens in the kind of political discourse far beyond what it did before. >> it is not scale well to a population of 300 people. we have created all these models over the air from radio to television to billboards. all the way down the list. at the expense of that one on one relationship. it is the surprise that people say they feel the members of congress are out of touch. they have never met them. there is a steady from texas

tech that has many followers on twitter, that the strength that relationship is similar to having met them are shrinking their hand feared for certain demographic groups -- their hand. for certain demographic groups, when following an elected official from the same demographic group, the influence of the tweets was greater than influencing from their own family. that allows people to have that relationship again and giving them more light touch ways to participate. and they do not necessarily have to be knocking door to door. sometimes it is just as light as one click to retweet something that is meaningful to them.

it also transforms the relationship. when i work with the white house, there is this concern of that we cannot keep up with everyone that tries to tweet us. you do not have to. it is a public forum but there is a big difference between the notion of i have a good as chance of anyone else getting my questions answered and i have no question. it is the difference between going to a town hall of not being allowed in the room. when you look at moments like about two months ago president obama went on the campaign swing through the morning -- des moines anti sent out a tweet sang after my speech i will take your questions for 30 minutes. he get offstage feared he goes to a holding room. he read some questions. he taps his answers. then they post the youtube video.

a few think about how that played out. someone could have been looking at torture on a mobile device -- looking at a mobile devices. they can see the president is taking questions and i want to ask him this. 30 minutes later, a personal response from the president and a little while later be able to see on their mobile devices and video of the president's reading their question, talking about it with his staff, and then typing the answer. that is fundamentally transforming the relationship and all electedters office. >> we talk about scale and target audiences. there are more voters than

arcus wadable. this is a new battleground state. one of the great things about social media is that you can track engagement. you can actually see what people were talking about with mitt romney and barack obama. it is a fascinating way to not just be told, but also be able to dig down deeper and have an understanding of these dynamics. what is important is campaigns have phases. very different goals and tools. the tools you will see in the

coming weeks are very different from what's they might have had when they were war in the persuasion world. i keep coming back to why this campaign is so interesting. the first e-mail that they send out was when they relaunched the website. it was an e-mail that to people to the west side. it was a youtube video and a facebook application. fundamentally that is not how campaigns used to be launched. it will be from now until the future. >> us some news working for a national campaign, in this world for there is public interaction with politicians and then the journalists to cover its. are we in an era that is constantly changing, shifting away from the centrality of

reporters before we even get a chance to write or say something so one has are made up their mind or have kicked opinions back and forth three or four times and we need to think either differently or think about the conversations that are happening even as we are writing about what we just watch. >> if you take last week in tampa, for most speakers the big peak came after their speech. people applauded. they said that down. they plot their device and start reading about it. they take a moment to type and tweet about it. a minute after romney finished speaking, about 14,200 tweet in a minute.

by the time they have got not the air and are talking about it, and the conversation has already moved on. sometimes you see these bikes during the speeches. people are reacting in that moment. viewers are no longer waiting for the post-game analysis. they are participating in its in real-time. >> we were looking at paul ryan's speech. we could track the search happening as the speech was taking place. we saw three spikes in particular. he mentioned his mom was his role model. one was when he mentioned his playlist up a cdc -- of acdc

and what he said was president obama's old slogans. but they cannot remember what it was called. it could have been the wanted to know more about who their mom was on what president obama promised at some time earlier on. to see that happen in a very distinct fashion, i do not think we have ever seen an election cycle where the second screen has played such a pivotal role in how people engage with the political discourse and what they are doing while they're watching television and having that tablet or smartphone. >> convention speeches are maybe not the best example. you are probably going to spend a ton of time thinking about it. there are some features you watch in -- speech is you watch

in person and you had an instantaneous reaction. you are going to get a reaction that does not need a lot of digesting. how much impact, how much is under. for comparison's sake it was about a fight. what that tells you is that these moments still to capture people's attention in a way that we are too dismissive of. these are still focusing events.

the delegates, each user has 130 friends. if there is anything that facebook is good for is reconnecting with old friends. it is an interesting encapsulation of personal media. >> i wanted to add one observation with a consistent thread. we are also measuring for the first time natural conversation. whether it is facebook or the twitter political index or the

search results, and these are measuring three actions that a cycle ago would have been behind the closed doors of coffeeshops. we are so used to measuring politics by these binary choices of what we think the field of answers are. if the conversation today or tomorrow start trending in one direction, it can have an impact. we have had the twitter political index which measures the attitudes of twitter users toward the candidates through their own tweet. we have been tracking this for president obama since august of 2010. it has correlated very closely

to the approval numbers for the president at that time. we know it is something interesting. may to july of last year, you saw a big spike for the president and our method -- in our methods. you saw in the daily data the numbers for the president start to fall of in twittered that a few weeks before the other data did. we discovered there were more tweet about the economy that on all national security issues combined including the osama bin laden raid, which is the most sustained tweet for a news event ever at that time. now we're able to actually see when the conversation is turning and have a little bit

more of a look down the road into the next term. that can be an incredibly powerful tool. >> one could be forgiven to think that what happens in the social media space is the only thing that matters. in your campaign, you track a lot of data. yet a tremendous array of tools. how much does this conversation matter?eat does this look like the trimmer's? how you ride the waves? how the measure their potential impact? -- do you measure their

potential impact? >> one interesting aspect of how we look at our supporters and the conversation going on is that there are two conversations happening from the perspective of a user. one is their friends and family and what they are saying and doing in looking at on facebook and in at their personal and social network. the of the conversation is also a much bigger spectacled l then it was before. -- spectacle now than it was before. there were three or four on each channel. it is not just those people but everybody who's ever been on television all weighing in at once on line. it is a really big delete conversation as well as the individual grass-roots conversation that people are having. for our purposes, if they are

expanding. the qualitative nature of its common to see facts get checked reduce the quantitative nature of its -- the quantitative nature of it, to see the facts getting checked right away is more interesting. >> about of the conversation, how does it impact the campaign? is it harder to ignore? often time there is a sense the campaign can pull itself back from that conversation. do you think people waste time engaging in that conversation? >> it is what my job to engage in that conversation. i didn't necessarily have to have an opinion. for our supporters, because there is so much more

conversation from their own social network and from opinion leaders and makers that it comments on us to have this for the campaign. we want something that is true to the president of what he wants to do to the country and be able to explain and make that relationship meaningful no matter what the context is. to the extent that we're trying to have a true fact based relationship, we have to be in the middle of a larger conversation. that does not mean winning the conversation is our objective with our supporters. >> speaking of conversation, i promise you we would take

questions from the audience. i do not know if we have multiple microphones. we have at least one. please wait for the microphone and enteask your question. >here we go. shout it out and i will repeat it. >> [inaudible] >> if you do not have access to social media comment this whole conversation -- media, at this whole conversation -- >> mobile phone access is something that is continuing to

grow. well i cannot predict the future, and the one thing i am fairly confident i can say is that more people will have access to these bones. they will be cheaper. voters are inherently mobile. i think that is such an important part of that. increasingly, all our companies are making sure we are focused on that. what is the experience tha? these connections may be for someone who is sitting in a desk. >> 140 characters. a lot of people ask why 140. why is that the magic number? the international text messaging standard is 160. the length of a tweet was designed to have enough room

that a text message could contain a user name and the full content of the tweet in a single tax. from the beginning, twitter has been designed for mobile texting. you have a complete experience when you are on your computer or smartphone. if he had a bond that can detect messaging, you can have a full twitter experience. if you send a text message right now to 40404 that says "follow username" you get all my tweet in text messages. you never have to touch a computer. it is something that has been a core part of the service. by allowing the platform to degrade well there are

communities that have gotten a phone. he confides that what the current prices are. they are now getting it over twitter. it is one reason why a study last year found that low income communities in the african- american community are actually represented in a greater proportion than twitter then they are on the population as a whole. if this continues to be a mission of hours. >> i will just add to that that of course the technology is changing. we are seeing mobile devices everywhere. you may also need some education to use it wisely and

effectively. it is one thing to have a google + account but how are you finding people in your community? what is it doing to leverage your political beliefs and reach out to others? it has to be that engagement. it behooves us to make sure that we're finding those folks and making that happen. >> we have a lot of different grass-roots programs. we have a lot of state organizations. we have something called "the getting american businesses online." it is not just social media but also just having the internet connection. for a lot of small businesses of that is a big step.

>> what if you talk about the other social networks, pinterest, reddit. which ones are using traction on? are you tailoring a different message to different social networks? >> the reality that each one of these is already filled with our supporters. while our supporters are everywhere, each one of these communities has its own particular tools from a technology and cultural perspective. we try to have conversations with our supporters in those that works and to encourage them to have conversation with others in language that is meaningful to them. participating with reddit

recently was something that not only about the president to go in and answer questions, but it about as to organize a community of over 10,000 redditers who want to be part of getting the message out there and identify as a community together. we are pretty much everywhere. my favorite is the tumblr. are content is the most fun there. we are everywhere. we see a lot of engagement. we tried to purchase big in the ways that are colloquial for those communities. >> how did reddit get on the president's radar? >> it is a big community of folks who are driving a lot of the conversation. a lot of the things you see a

pop on twitter for the first time mark facebook, you can see the thread back to reddit where is that the community behi? >> this is not outside the realm of possibility. >> the political parties, but there is an inherent physical and time structure to its. most people do not understand the democratic party is not just a building or institution. there are laws and rules and institutions. i think it is important to route some of this in the structure.

at the end of the day, no matter what we do here is a physical act. it is mainly a ballot are going out. a lot of the things we love and politics, they're still very physical. they are knocking on doors or reconvening every few years with your friends. i think the convention will evolve. what we see today it may not look exactly what we see in four or eight years. i think there is some inherent value in the gathering from a party structure. >> might it be possible that the four years from now it will look something like this? a third party might want to launch a convention. >> there are a couple of things. i generally try to avoid four

your predictions. things just move so quickly. we are to 0.5 year old company. the entire convention of both conventions was 360,000 tweet #2008. there more than 5 million tweet at the republican convention alone this year. they are on different scales. who knows where we will be in four years. instead of predictions, i can offer questions. i think some are, it is this still the best way to do something? we affect conversations about this. this is the best way to sort out where candidates feel on issues and squeeze them onto a small stage and try to find a way of dividing up 90 minutes for them to have that conversation? are there ways to have this

conversation play out with more involvement from other stacks? we're seeing bring me some of that audience back, back into the hall and as part of that conversation. i think there will be some conversations. if you look back to 1980, the microphone is now free. everyone can get a microphone. if you have quality information, you can get scale for that. that famous picture of the u.s. airways flight, you saw the ferries coming up with the rest. that-i only have 30 followers. -- that guy only had $30. -- 30 followers. we saw the tea party movement to organize across state lines and

find individuals who would not have connected in past cycles. just as we have seen in journalism or music, it is not as necessary as it once was. that will transform the process. >> i think there are senate that would say the convention should be shorter. what is the relevant? should we be think all of this? where is the money going? i think social media has made the conventions matter more to people who either are not here or cannot be here. in 2008 he gets a social media was a novelty. in 2012, it is a necessity. four years from now, where does it go? i would love to hear from the delegates from south dakota if she wants conventions to go away. do you feel like this is an

experience with happening -- worth having? >> i would say for people who question, a center gave a speech. it can have an impact in personal policy. >> the question right here. i am a journalist and economist news magazine. you have explained how much more exciting this is and how much volume than four years ago. all of us are finding that among the corps voter group there is less intensity. this is a major headache for the

obama administration. without your social media success, with things be even worse? is this not as good as people in ?he field office deat >> can you hear me? i think you are lowering the barriers. people being able to participate in the process. my friend said it is like putting on a bumper sticker. i am not going to complain. many come from backgrounds, and the goal is always to get as many people as possible and move them up the ladder of engagement. this is very much the basis of a

lot of what the obama campaign does. the fundamental challenges are different. these tools are allowing more access to people to be in the campaign than ever before. he can only be good for democracy. >> you're hearing from all different pockets of the country. it is people who are against the process are do not agree. you're getting all sides of this issue. it depends on where you look when you are thinking people are not as engage, that this is not happening -- working. there are so many people that are part of the process.

a lot of people i know have gotten more involved in the political process as a result of technology and social media. to me that is exciting. >> what excites me are the empowerment that this provides and the opportunity to be part of the process and direct the engagement to the candidates in the way they could not before. it is the opportunity to measure the real-time conversation in a way that they could not before. i think those tools does not just automatically mean you like the candidate more. we are offering the candidates more. it will still be their message and what they say that rules the day appeared in the twitter political index -- the day.

in the twitter political index, we found the attitude have been largely off negative about both candidates. a little bit more positive for the president. since may this average out to about a really different. there have only a handful of days were either candidates has been among the more positively viewed topics on twitter. it issues the a round the big event. the announcement of paul ryan as the running mate. in the times in between, you see the conversation shifted back to what they're being exposed to that date, the television ads, the radio show. that is sparking a negative

reaction. it is exciting that people are able to join a public square and connect with candidates in a more personal way than they have ever done before. it puts the pressure back on the candidates to actually connect with them. that is true for both candidates. >> do you feel more pressure because of the increased engagement or the volatility? >> from our perspective it is great to be able to touch more people through our channels and to provide opportunities to organize. we have incredible facebook functionality to help people register to vote. we are excited about engaging with more people and having the opportunities to tell the story of that. there are stories of individuals

participating in the process that are not going to be in the regular one every day. it is a story we can tell that helps reflect back to people what they are doing. >> i am a public school teacher. my question was already answered. the question that i had ultimately was much more brought. do you think fundamentally that all these changes we have been talking about are helpful or hurtful for the democratic process? it was a little bit answered already. ultimately, that was the question. do we all believe that these changes are helpful or harmful to our democracy? >> i am excited when more people participate in the political process. every election is different.

everybody's journey is different. many times it is based on a chance interaction with someone or something independent of what is light on in your life. at the opportunity for people to communicate is absolutely wonderful for the political process. what we have seen in the 5.5 years that we have been doing this is that there are people who started not with any sorta intentions who are now leaders in their communities. they have gone to work for causes and charities and things they believe in because they discovered a sense of passion and responsibility to the community through politics. there is a lot of different journeys. the great thing about more

people is that there are more of the stories in journeys. >> it is hard to argue that this is bad for the democratic process. your adding more voices. people have a chance to participate. maybe what is difficult is finding those voices and those people who matter to you and those issues with in all of what is being talked about. it can be tricky to consume all of this information. having lists within twitter, making sure your manager facebook friends, what ever it is to make sure that stream of information matters to you and whoever you are reaching out to can also hear your voice, i think that can be tricky in terms of the evolution of all of this. it is beneficial for the democratic party. >> more voices in the process

can only be good. more direct access can only be good. this is true for the democratic process here. it is true overseas. the more barriers you remove to people being able to participate in the process, the stronger. >> there's always going to be certain level of noise. what excites me is when i worked for the local candidates, they're able to have a more direct governing experience than they have ever been able to have in the past. those are the leaders who will go on and have this direct connection with their constituents. >> one point of context. engagement happens because big issues are since before the american public. long before these companies can online, from 2000-2004, george

bush drew his 2000 vote by 10 million. almost 80 million more votes cast in 2004 than 2000. it was still traditional. engagement comes from a lot of different motivations and reasons. there were huge issues before the country. they got engaged. it was one of the largest ever get increases from one election to another. the gentleman here who i think has been tweaking madly, you get the last question. >> what makes your team better than the romney team? [laughter]

>> that is a softball. that is like an arcing lollipop. >> that is a dangerous one. our team is a group of passionate people who believe in the cause and the candidate and the political process in a way that the typical political activists don't. our team in chicago is a whole lot of people who do not have a lot of campaign experience. they are designers. they are writers who stepped up the sideline to throw their body at our process. we have a but of things we did we have a lot of things. we tried to protect. at the end of the day we have a lot of people who believe and what we're doing. -- in what we are doing.

they do the smartest things they know how to do until they fall down. it is really an inspiring thing to watch. i am an old timer in this with all these kids working on the campaign. it is not a sustainable over time. we have been very likely to have a lot of special inspired people to make something really special happen. i do not feel [inaudible] >> i tore the whole headquarters. one thing that was mentioned with all the things you just talked about, the distribution, the ideas, at the graphics. all that is in house now. it was not not a 2008. >> it is a mix. we have a lot of important vendors.

we have a mix of in-house and out of house talent. we have technology platforms we use as offenders. we have technology consultants that we use. the way we get a lot of work done is having a lot of people working 20 hours a day. >> that is what campaigns are all about. i am major garrett. our outstanding panel, are c- span audience, i hope you enjoyed it. thank you for the questions. yet been a great audience. -- you have been a great audience. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] but i want to say thank you again. we have a deliciously cool room at the end of the hallway. i invite you to continue the conversation there. we also have lots of cold beverages for you to enjoy.

we will be back here tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. the air-conditioning and sound will be working perfectly. i invite you all to join us again then. thank you. >> you can watch this on the c- span video library. a preview of the democratic national convention starting tomorrow at in charlotte, north carolina with karen tumulty and reince priebys. that started in about 15 minutes. for a closer look at the candidates, check out the c-span convention held to learn more.

coverage of the democratic convention start this week. every minute. every speech. featured speakers tuesday night include san antonio mayor castro and first lady michelle obama. on tuesday, elizabeth warren and bill clinton. on thursday, vice president joe biden and president barack obama. use our convention have to share the video clips. >> in the end, that is what this election is about. do we participate in the politics of cynicism? to participate in the politics of hope? john kerry calls on us to help. don edwards calls on us to hope. i am not talking about blind optimism. the the unemployment will go

away if we do not think about it. -- they think unemployment will go away if we do not think about it. i am talking about something more substantial. >> convention hub at c-span.org /campaign2012. >> we will have a preview of the democratic national convention in about 14 minutes. ahead of the convention we're taking a but back at past democratic speeches. this is from 1964 when robert kennedy spoke to delegates in atlantic city. this was held less than a year after the assassination of president john f. kennedy. a week after he resigned as attorney general and announced he would run for one in new york's senate seats.

[applause]

[cheers and applause]

[applause] >> mr. chairman. [cheers and applause] >> attorney general kennedy. [cheers and applause] >> [inaudible] > the delegates were aware of this would be an emotional night. [inaudible] 6000 delegates.

>> mr. speaker. mr. johnson. beensenator jackson. ladies and gentlemen. mr. chairman, mr. chairman. i wish to speak for a -- a few moments. i want to thank all of you, delegates to the national convention and supporters of the democratic party, for all that you did for president john f. kennedy.

[cheers and applause] >> that ovation, by the way, read about 12 minutes. -- ran about 12 minutes. >> i want to -- express my appreciation to you for the average human on his behalf at the convention -- the average inmate on his behalf for his election in november of 1960. the encouragement and the strength that you gave him after he was elected president of the united states. [applause] it was the source of the that there were 1000 people all over the united states who worked together with him, dedicated to certain principles and certain

ideas. no matter what talent and individual possesses, no matter how much integrity and honesty might have, he is a political figure. he can accomplish very little. if he was sustained by the the rec party, all over the united states, dedicated to the same things that he was attempting to accomplish, he can -- a can accomplish a great deal. no one knew that more thanhe used to take great pride in the

trip that thomas jefferson made. searching for butterflies. they ended up in new york city. he took great pride in the fact that the democratic party was the oldest political party in the world. and he knew -- [applause] of this linkage of madison and jefferson with the leaders of new york, combining the south, combining the industrial areas of the country with their rural farm. that this combination was always dedicated to progress. all of our presidents have been dedicated to progress. when thomas jefferson also realized the united states could not be remain on the eastern seaboard and said lois and clark to the west coast. of andrew jackson, woodrow wilson. our citizens were in despair

because of the financial crisis. of harry truman, who not only spoke but acted for freedom. [applause] so that when he became president, not only he had his own principles and ideas, but he had the strength of the democratic party so that when he became president, he wanted to do something for the mentally ill and mentally retarded. for those who were not covered by social security, for those who were not receiving an adequate minimum wage, for those who did not have adequate housing, for our elderly people who had difficulty paying their medical bills, for our fellow citizens who have difficulty living in this society.

to all he dedicated himself but realized also in order for us to make progress at home, that we have to be strong overseas. that our military strength had to be strong. the soviet union approved the missiles and bombers from cuba. even beyond his idea was that this country should exist to be a better place will be turned over to the next generation than

we inherited it from the last generation. that is why he made such an effort. he was committed to the young people not only of the united states, but the young people of the world. when there are difficulties, you sustained it. when there were times of crisis, you stood beside it. times this are coming to comforted him. -- this, you comforted him.

we must look forward. when i think a president kennedy i think of what shakespeare said -- when he should die, take him out and cut out the stars that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun." [applause] we must look to the future. i join with you to realize that

the quest was started four years ago that everyone started four years ago. if that is to be sustained, at the same effort and energy and dedication that was given to president john f. kennedy must be given to president lyndon b. johnson and hubert humphrey. [applause] this'll not only be for the benefit of the democratic party, but it will be for the benefit of this whole country.

president kennedy once said we have the capacity to make this the best generation in the history of mankind. if we do our duty, we meet our responsibility and our obligation, as american citizens, and our local cities and towns and farms and state and country as a whole, of this country is going to be the best generation in the history of mankind. if we dedicate ourselves -- apply ourselves as individuals, the woods are lovely, dark, and

deep, and miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep. mrs. kennedy has asked that this be dedicated to all of you and all of the profit country who helped make john f. kennedy president of the united states. [applause] >> you can find more convention speeches at our c-span convention have along with web exclusive but the as and ways to cook and share portions with other people. coming up next, a preview of this year's convention in charlotte. >> during the republican and democratic could bit chips, we are asking the lead high-school students to send a message to the president as part of the

student cam documentary series. they will ask what is the most important thing to consider this election season. there are $50,000 in total prize is available. the competition is open to students grade 6 through 12. for complete details and rules, go online. >> on this labor day monday, the traditional start of the fall presidential campaign, the democratic party is preparing to convenience national convention here in charlotte, north carolina. delegates will gather inside time warner are green and the president will accept his nomination at the bank of america stadium. this is the first time charlotte has hosted a national party

convention. we will preview the agenda had for the democrats as well as get republican responses from the chairman, rience priebus from the gop. to our will get underway with a video address by former president jimmy carter and the first lady michelle obama. when state will include remarks by elizabeth warren and a nominating speech by former president bill clinton and the traditional call of states which will happen after 0:00. but we live gavel to gavel coverage. thursday, from the bank of america stadium, senator john kerry and and the acceptance speech by president obama. joining us inside the arena is the political correspondent for the "washington post."

there seems to be two questions people are asking -- are you better off than four years ago. the obama campaign is asking will you be better off for years from now. >> what the obama campaign has been trying to argue all along, and with the people by this i don't know, it's not are you better off than four years ago, but are you better off than you would have been without barack obama's policies? you're going to see a lot of ordinary people at this convention taking -- giving testimony to the struggles they have had over the last four years and how specific obama policies have helped them. a lot of energy is going to be poured into scaring the heck out of people about what a romney presidency would look like. i do think that is going to be the balance at this convention. >> you are talking to the obama

campaign staffers over the last couple of days. what do they need to come out of charlotte and how did it look back at tampa? >> there are a couple of things going on. they are downplaying the idea that the republicans got anything out of that convention. but they understand they have to motivate their base, which they will be doing a lot of here. one thing they have really pioneered is the use of a political convention as an organizing tool. we saw that with the big rally in denver four years ago. they're going to try to do that here because this is a swing state. they're going to try to use this convention to get their ground operation here and in virginia supercharged. >> one of the questions being asked -- the weather conditions are looking better. the backup plan is to have the president here inside the arena,

but assuming all goes well with the air raid and the arena is the venue for the president for his acceptance speech. one of the questions is will they fill the stadium? >> these are really aimed at the television audience. does appear looking at the ratings numbers that people are just kind of turning the channel and going elsewhere. there was a 40% drop off in the nielsen ratings between sarah palin's acceptance speech in 2008 and paul rim's last week. that's another big question. -- paul ryan's's last week. they tend to be people 55 and older and there's a question of what the value of these conventions really are in the 21st century. >> did the romney campaign get a bounce nationally? a new poll shows in north carolina, mitt romney is at the moment.

>> it is really hard to measure rebounds. our polling director at the "washington post" -- i think he is one of the best in the business -- was saying there are a couple problems. one is that the conventions are back to back and there is a holiday weekend in the middle. holiday weekends are notoriously hard for pollsters because people are out doing other stuff. right now, it looks like they were pretty flat coming out of the convention but i think the polls are particularly unreliable at this moment. >> do conventions matter? do they need to change four or eight years from now? >> the democrats have already scaled there's back to three days from four days. the republicans, the last two conditions -- but it's too conventions had to do it in voluntarily because of hurricane at the last two times. many people in tampa were really questioning the value of this

period that included speaker john boehner, who set four days is just too long. even john sununu predicted to me i don't think we will be doing this again. i think it will be doing something like this, but given the amount of money -- these things cost about $100 million to put on, i think there'll be a lot of rethinking. >> last week, we shared with you what the democrats were saying about the convention and it romney and the republicans. today, republicans with an ad aimed at the democrats. this one was released just a couple hours ago. >> these are the steps we must take. >> there are plenty of steps we can take right now to start getting our economy back on track to help regrow this economy. >> if we are going to end our dependence on foreign oil, we will recruit an army of new teachers, make college

affordable, make college more affordable, and repair are crumbling roads and bridges. tonight, more americans are out of work. >> we still have friends and family out there looking for work. at time when seven people are striving to keep up, few are willing -- if you are willing to work with me, i promise you, i promise you change will come. >> the republican national committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> that seems to carry out the team we heard last week from mitt romney. people who were excited about the president four years ago may be disappointed today. >> certainly, looking at the democratic base, democrats are very excited about this election, but it is a different kind of excitement and we saw

four years ago. four years ago, it was idealistic. sort of a more upbeat kind of excitement. this time around, it is fear and anger and it really reflects the nature of our politics. i saw all of that negative energy last week in tampa. you don't have this aspirational cents you have from both parties for years ago. >> our guest is the national political correspondent for the "washington post." their work is available on-line. the delegates continue to arrive today on this labor day. how much enthusiasm is there this year compared with use of four years ago from the base of the party, the activists that go back and try to recruit supporters and get the folks to

the polls on election day? >> we keep hearing anecdotally that the number of volunteers is fallen. i think that is in part because of the difficult economic times. people have other concerns in their lives and i think some people are turned off by that anger. but the base, the democratic base continues to tell pollsters that they are enthusiastic about this election. for the first time in our poll, we see a similar level of enthusiasm among republicans. the most conservative republicans are not as excited about this election as the most liberal democrats are and there is one reason for that -- it is paul ryan. >> with go back to 2008, denver, colorado, as barack obama accepted his party's nomination. compare what he said then to

what we could hear this thursday. >> four years ago, i stood before you and told my story. the brief union between a young man from kenya and a young woman from kansas who were not well off or well-known, but shared a belief that in america, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to. it is that promise that has always set this country apart -- through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one american family to ensure the next generation can pursue their dreams as well. that is why i stand here tonight. because for 232 years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women, students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors found the courage to keep it alive.

we meet at one of those defining moments. a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the american promise has been threatened much more. tonight, more americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. more of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. more of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bill is you can't afford to pay, and tuitions better be on your reach. these challenges are not all of our government's making, but the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in washington and the failed policies of george w. bush. [applause]

america, we are better than these last eight years. we are a better country than this. [applause] >> that speech is part of c- span's the library. you can check that out and are passed convention speeches. what will be here this week? >> four years ago, barack obama was saying two things -- let's go out there and make history, and he was also saying -- selling himself as an agent who could fix what was wrong with washington. we also saw that in the three presidents who were elected before him. they were all claiming i can bridge the gap. i can bridge the partisanship. four years later, the partisanship in washington is worse than it has ever been. what we're hearing from barack obama now is look, washington is broken. you the american voter is going to have to pick a side and break this tide. one side or the other is right.

it is a very different kind of message you are hearing this time around. whether we hear it this week -- i assume we will, but we are still trying to hear where he is going to take this forward from here. to thee going to go down floor with our colleague who has a guest. >> there are lots of people on the floor right now, a lot of media folks with their cameras pointed toward the podium because we hear first lady michelle obama is coming out for her orientation. so hopefully we will be happily interrupted by the first lady. paul singer is usa today's political editor. iraq the media -- the raft of media shows the increasing amount of people. what are you doing to distinguish your coverage? >> we're spending our time focusing on enterprise work and staying away from the everyday

things that the one. we have built the stuff that is making news. we built a twitter election meter to track the sentiment on twitter of people toward barack obama and mitt romney. the notion is let's see what people are saying about these guys. it has become a news event in itself. >> are you able to segment a specific event that might cause people's attention? what are you doing with swing states? can you follow individual states? >> you cannot follow individual states because the pool is too small in individual states. we are able to bunch of states and getting a score for all 12 of the swing states that are the battleground in this election as well as a national number. we are able to put some bait- specific events on the meter. you can see why this number

jumped so high and why is obama's numbers so popular today. it was his birthday. all of a sudden his twitter score is higher. >> there is a lot of excitement about twitter of this convention and people aggregating, including this network. that twitter people are saying this is the first twitter election. but we will not know until election day how close a monitor twitter is of voter sentiment. >> that's right. we're very excited about this, it is really neat stuff but we have no idea what it's telling us and we really won't know. i think over time we will become more sophisticated in analyzing it and be able to compare it to the outcomes of the actual election and see if it tells anything different from what the negative polling dead. we think if nothing else, it is really interesting to watch and see this conversation trending and see how quickly it dissolves.

it is a fascinating that it taught on tour for 20 minutes and by next week, they are onto something else entirely. it is fascinating. >> we have a very active twitter committee following us today. how can they find it? >> go to the "usa today" website. you could also google it -- the usa today twitter election meter. or you can't send me a tweet and i'm happy to send you directions. >> the first lady wanted to know because she waited until you were done. thank you for talking to us. >> we talked about the news cycle and social media has surer sped up the process. >> it sure has. i am wondering this week if i need to shut down whitewater account while the speeches are under way. there is this entirely separate

conversation going on simultaneously and in some ways, i think sharpened our understanding and in some ways it kind of distracts us. >> we saw that last week with the clint eastwood -- it just created an avalanche, an explosion of tweets during the last hour of the republican convention. >> it would was very active during the pol ryan speech. people were tweeting the factual errors as they were happening. with a print publication, my deadline was 10:45 at night. that meant the press is start running even as the speakers are still speaking. it's a real challenge but the web does allow us to catch up

with things before the next edition to. >> i know you are a native of san antonio, texas. as a visitor, when you look at some of the scenes, give our viewers a sense of what is happening and how this is all leading up to what will occur tomorrow, wednesday, and thursday. >> i think what the democrats are trying to do is give a feel of openness about this event. a sort of community celebration. they have a lot of good music and food out there and they really a very diverse crowd. if they could have lowered the temperature by about 10 degrees, it would have been perfect. >> mitt romney is not on the campaign trail today. this is labor day and in past campaigns cycles, democrats and republicans have been feverishly campaigning. should he be campaigning or in today's 24/cable news cycle, is

it irrelevant? >> he is campaigning in that the campaign is putting out a video. these candidates are human beings. i can only imagine how completely exhausted mitt romney and his family must feel right now. sometimes i think it's better for a candidate to recharge the batteries and get another burst steam going, especially since this will be a week in which the democrats get first crack at dominating the message. >> center barack obama made his national debut in boston of july 2000 for. that is part of the c-span video library if you like to watch his keynote address. a lot of attention on the mayor of san antonio tamara's he gives his keynote address. let's look back at what he said in 2004. >> it is that fundamental belief, i am my brother's

keeper, i am my sister's keeper that makes this country work. it is what allows us to pursue our individual dream and yet still come together as one american family. the purpose in them -- out of many, one. even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers, {the politics of anything goes. well, i say to them, tonight there is not a liberal america and a conservative america. there is the united states of america. there is not a black america and a white america, a latino america, and asian america, there is a united states of america. the pundits like to slice and

dice our country into red states and blue states, read states for republicans, blue states for democrats, but i have news for them -- we were shipped an awesome got in that blue states and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. we coach little leagues in the blue states and yes, we have some gay friends and the red states. there are patriots to oppose the war in iraq aunt -- that oppose the war in iraq and patriots who support the war in iraq. all was pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all was defending the united states of america. [applause] in the end, in the end, that is what this election is about. do we participate in politics of

cynicism or do we participate in politics of hope? >> the keynote address eight years ago by what was then a little-known senator from illinois, barack obama, i can get for the senate. if you look at the trajectory of barack obama's life in 2000, in los angeles, he could not even get a credential to get inside the convention. he had to leave because his credit card was rejected. this year, he will accept the nomination for the second time as his party's nominee. >> it is interesting to watch, even as these parties are nominating a candidate or three nominating a candidate, everybody has an eye on for years from now. a lot of people with presidential aspirations are making a point going over and visiting the iowa delegation.

these conventions are also about the future of the party. that was certainly in 2004 the speech that made a career. but at the time, barack obama was not on any one's radar. >> the mayor of los angeles has been just about everywhere, including this network. the governor of maryland not only delivering a speech in prime time, but performing with his caltech and. but we have not seen much from the mayor of -- the governor of new york. >> we have not and i don't know what his schedule was here. >> the other question about hillary clinton -- traditionally the secretary of state does not attend political events. but her husband is delivering a prime-time address on wednesday that will certainly get a lot of attention. >> yes. i think that's probably one of the most highly anticipated speeches of this convention. >> what does he need to do and what is the relationship?

we have been reading about the relationship that has warmed up in the last year and half between these two presidents. >> i talked to people who are close to clinton and the fight he was getting from barack obama as i don't need your advice and i don't need you until recently. but what bill clinton has the barack obama i think for all of his gifts as a politician lacks is an ability to reach out and touch white, blue-collar democrats. he can deliver that message in a way barack obama has struggled to do. we are going to hear a lot because a lot of those people have been most affected by this economy are in the swing voter category. >> i mentioned this because i know you remember the 1988 speech in which the governor of arkansas was delivering the nominating speech for michael

the caucus. that speech is part of our video library. i expect will be a different speech. >> i'm sure president clinton was relieved at clint eastwood now. his own speech will not be considered the biggest gaffe in recent convention speech making history. >> we will come back a moment to check in with you one more time. the democrats have released a time lapse of video to show you how the tampa bay times for what turned into a political arena. the same thing here were the bobcats plate. let's watch. ♪

>> a time lapse view of this arena as it was transformed into a political arena. day one of the convention is tomorrow.

but go down to the floor. >> i am here with the national press secretary for the democratic national committee and has been living in charlotte for six weeks. >> this would be weak seven. i have been here since the end of july. >> we just watched the time lapse the of this are really coming together. what is the message you want to leave americans with? >> the theme of the convention is americans coming together. we have really taken that to heart. we are opening the festivities today with carolina fast, and open event, open to the public, free for all to come and kick off with a labor day celebration. we are closing the event at bank of america stadium where president obama and vice president biden will take the nomination. we want to explain and make clear the choice they will have between president obama's vision

of living the country forward and mitt romney's vision of moving that country back to a failed economic provisions of the past. >> in tampa, we heard this fema repeatedly of wheat did not build that. will we hear the couer to that? >> the counter is that is not true. i find it remarkable the republicans based an entire evening of their convention -- we heard paul ryan's speech, several lies. he was not honest about plant that was close in wisconsin under the bush administration, not under president obama's administration. there were several other things that were not truthful. so it's not shocking. what you will hear in charlotte is the president's vision for leaving the country forward, building an economy that is built to last from the middle class out. very different from what we heard in tampa where they want

to build an economy from the top down. we're going to talk about the economy and you will hear about that a lot. each of our speakers was selected because they will define the choice we have seen in this election. whether it's about the economy or women's health or immigration, we will hear from a range of speakers who can define the choice voters have in this election. >> speaking of the things we have seen -- a lot of discussion among the political pundit class about the theme are you better off than you were four years ago and how that implies some risk. how do you want to frame that question for voters? >> i think everyone remembers when the president took office and we were bleeding 700,000 jobs a month. we are absolutely better off than where we were at that time. do we have more work to do? absolutely. the president is -- the

president is prepared to do that work but we have had job growth for the last 28 months that we are definitely better off than we were four years ago. >> in denver, there will be the big event -- we have had storms every day since we have been here. yet to move inside, what does it do with the big sendoff? >> we are prepared to go forward, rain or shine. the safety of our friends coming from all over the country is absolutely important. there are severe weather warnings, we have contingency plans in place. we are very excited. we have lots of people who are ready to send the president off on his last stretch of the campaign. >> we said -- we can see the set up for "the today show right

behind you. that is critical real-estate. was the consideration giving that kind of floor space? >> i think being in the middle of the delegates and -- that is where the action is. that is where the excitement will be as each of the speakers comes on and talks about how president obama's this is going to move the country forward. this is about the grassroots activist. we have nearly 6000 people, half of which are women. we are very proud of the diversity and our delegation. camera locations are all round to be a part of the action. >> what is your biggest concern as the gavel comes down tomorrow questor >> i don't know if i'm as concerned as i am excited to get things rolling and sent president obama off for the rest of the campaign with a big sendoff and the stadium.

>> weeks of planning all comes together tomorrow. >> thank you for having me. >> let's go back to our guest for a final thought. last week, jackpot said the benchmark will be looking at the polls around september 15. that will give him a good sense of where this campaign is moving ahead. what are your benchmarks? "looking at once again be on the conventions? >> i'm looking at the three debates. these conventions are about filling out broad themes, but the three debates will be absolutely crucial in seeing that you can't sit side by side and hopefully seeing that in positions where they not only have to defend their own ideas but to explain and get into that details that you just don't see at a convention. >> thank you very much for being gracious with your time. >> thank you.

>> we're going to move just few blocks away to a familiar face, the chairman of their republican national committee, reince priebus, is here with us. thank you for being with us on c-span. >> happy to be on and happy to be in charlotte. >> what is your goal for the next couple of days? >> we have a full-blown war room, a rapid response team, press conferences, we've got surrogates. we have one of the biggest counter convention operations we have seen on either party. we are already up and at them here. we have had a full day of press conferences and meetings. we need to get in the story and tell the truth about where we are at in this economy and the president promised and what he delivered. then ask the very famous question, which is are you better off today than you were four years ago.

that is the question we're going to ask and ask and ask until election day. >> the democrats are countering by saying will you be better off for years from now and what would happen if mitt romney is the elected president. they're taught -- they're trying to take a twist on that question. >> they have had a pretty lousy run. i will give them that. the president promised to carpet the world and would get unemployment below 8%. the debt and deficit are through the moon and he didn't even touch those problems. there is really very little he could point to that better today than it was four years ago. of the we're all tired hypothetical and the twist and turns. the fact is the facts lineup, he didn't do the job, it's not good for america. no one is happy with it, but it is what is and it's time for a new president. >> the traditional convention bounce, we have had to campaign cycle with back-to-back

conventions. looking at the polls, mitt romney received little if any bounce from the republican convention. does that matter? >> i think he did receive a bounce. i think he got a couple. one when he named paul ryan and one last week. i think he solidified a lot of the goodwill coming off the vice-presidential run. i think people are starting to get to know mitt romney which is really important. when you look at what people know about these two candidates -- the president this stock at a certain number of likability and getting new voters to look at him. the president this dot. it is mitt romney that can keep going up and up and up because people are starting to get to know him. that is why you are seeing obama -- this is nothing new or earth shattering, but it is why barack obama is tearing down mitt romney. their team knows, and they will admit it, they know they cannot

get ahead just based on the facts. the only way they can get ahead is by tearing down mitt romney. they know the economy is in the tank and they know they're going to be blamed for it, so their tactic is to play dirty and be divisive. we just have to be prepared as we are today to lay out facts of the american people. >> the number you need to get to is to its 70. how do you get there? walk us through the states that are going to flip from the democratic column into the republican column? >> we're sitting in a state for important to that equation. north carolina. we have to keep wrestling -- florida, where we just came from is very important. ohio, virginia, and then we need to pick off a state that barack obama won in 2008 that bush won in 2004. we're feeling very good about colorado and iowa and nevada.

but a state we're not talking about is -- we did not win in 2004 and 2008, my home state of wisconsin. i feel like we can win wisconsin with paul ryan on the ticket. we have done their with scott walker and we have a good team on the ground. if we take those 10 electoral votes out of wisconsin, put it in our back pocket, you pick up in iowa or colorado and all of a sudden, you give yourself some breathing space with virginia and ohio and some of these other states. that is the formula for us. we feel good about where we are up but i think the democrats are probably going to tell you something similar. we do like the direction we are heading. >> in 2000, as florida went, so went the nation. are you looking at one state that you say if that state goes for my candidate, we wind? if it goes for the president, we

lose? >> ohio is the big kahuna to me. the ground game is where it is that. we have done well on the ground. we have a better ground operation than the democrats do in ohio. but that's just because i feel good about virginia and north carolina and florida. that just tells you i'm very confident about those states, but we have to keep working hard. we will get one of those other eight states, it's just a matter of making sure we are working hard at keeping our head down and talking about facts. like i said before, there is nothing more important to the republican party and making sure this is an election decided by the facts of where we are at on jobs, spending, the economy, and if we do that, we win this race. >> let me ask you about a couple of other races. in missouri, is that a lost cause for the senate race? >> i would not say it is a lost

cause, because i think he has an opportunity to get out of the race. i have said what i am going to say about that race. the fact is, we have a country to save. barack obama is the one that's in the way and he hasn't fulfilled the mission for all of us. that's what i am focused on right now. >> explain what he needs to do in terms of the deadlines -- one has already passed. if he were to get out the race, what is the next one? >> i believe september 25, he can get out of the race and file a document and give us a better opportunity to win the race. that's my point -- just giving us the best chance to win. doing the right thing in putting liberty and freedom first. that's about it. my focus is on the top of the tippett, -- the top of the ticket, barack obama and will need to do to put our country back on track. >> the obama campaign is out

with a new that as well today. let me let you listen to this and get your reaction. >> the middle class is carrying a heavy load in america, but there romney does not see it. under the romney plan, a middle- class family will pay an average of up to $2,000 more per year in taxes. at the same time, giving multimillionaire's like himself a $250,000 tax cut. so, romney hit the middle class harder and gives a millionaire at an even bigger break. is that the way forward for america? >> rim barack obama, and i approve this message. >> the middle-class and taxes are big issues in this campaign. >> i think the president to talk about his record. this economy is so bad that middle-class families are making $4,000 less a year than they were four years ago. middle-class families are paying almost 2000 more a year for

health care when barack obama said he was going to solve it. there is $6,000. then you have this lie about $250,000. do we want to raise taxes on 850,000 small businesses in america and a time when we are not creating enough jobs? one of the problems is a 32nd at like this place on fear and division -- a 30-second ad of like this plays on fear. everyone is worse off no matter where you said on the income bracket. if he just would have completed one-third of this mission we would not be having this conversation. but he didn't and we are where we are at in this economy needs to be better than it is and unfortunately, the president can't seem to connect the dots and get the job done. >> if you look at the polling numbers, the race is essentially tied. president slightly ahead orbit romney slightly ahead in a couple of key states. yet 60% say the country is

headed in the wrong direction. with those kinds of numbers, why is it still so competitive? >> i think barack obama carries a big brand and the brand is broken. the brand is not what he said it was in 2008 and it takes time to lay that case out to the american people. what you are laying out is not just an indicator of what's going to happen. people have made up their minds. this economy is not where it should be. that is doomsday for barack obama. it's a matter of us keeping our heads down, staying focused on the issue, always going back to the facts and the economy, i think over time, what people already know, the economy is not where should be and the president did not fulfill his mission, that is the reason we will win in november. they believe mitt romney can get the job done and put a businessman in charge that can set goals and meet goals.

that's what we need to do. i think people are tired of the speeches, part of the pomp and circumstance. it's time to get a results- driven person in the white house. >> explain your line this morning about pixie dust that has gone away. >> it's an expression. the barack obama of hope and change, the brand of hope, the brand of barack obama sold this country and all of the pixie dust that goes along with that is all wiped away because people know what they're getting. they got a president that is in love with giving speeches, he is in love with this drive to campaign, but he has to be in love with governing. you've got to be in love with sausage making in getting the job done for the american people. that is tough to do. he hasn't been able to do it. >> do conventions still matter? will they be different for years from now? >> i think they really do

matter. i think the funding mechanisms might be different. my impression is you are still going to have three or four day conventions that's going to be the same kind of thing but i think the problem parties have and i think my counterpart would agree with me is the law doesn't allow national parties to raise softballers for conventions. -- soft dollars for conventions. i don't think you should use taxpayer dollars, but that means you have to uncut the hands of the national party is so the national party spread responsibility of raising the money and you can put these things on in a more efficient and effective manner. >> reince priebus, chair of the republican national committee is here in charlotte this week. thank you for stopping by. >> happy to be here. >> one of the events taking place today is not a partisan event. it is carolina fast and actor jeff bridges is on the stage. let's watch.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> actor jeff bridges on the stage here at carolina fest in charlotte, north carolina. the traditional start of the convention getting underway tomorrow, late afternoon. we will have live coverage here on c-span. past nominating speeches and

acceptance speeches by past candidates for the president -- we have done this for the republican that we will do so this week with the democrats. let's look back at some of those speeches and memorable moments from democratic conventions. >> whoever is inaugurated in january, the american people will have to pay mr. reagan's bills. the budget will be squeezed, taxes will go up, and anybody who says they won't is not telling the truth to the american people. [applause] i mean business in. by the end of my first term, i will reduce the reagan budget deficit by two-thirds. let's tell the truth.

that must be done. it must be done. mr. reagan, he will raise taxes and so will lie. he won't tell you. i just did. [applause] >> it time to wake up to the new challenges that face the american family. time to see the young families and this country are never again forced to choose between the jobs they need and the children love. [applause] time to be sure parents are never again told that no matter how long they work or how hard their child cries, a college education is the right they can't afford. [applause]

is time to ask why it is we have run up more debt in this country in the last eight years than we did in the previous 200 and make sure it never happens again. [applause] >> somewhere at this very moment, a child is being born in america. let it be our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family, and a hopeful future. let it be our cause to see that that child has a chance to live to the fullest of her god-given capacity. [applause] let it be our cause to see that child grow up strong and secure, braced buyer challenges but

never struggling alone, with family and friends and a face that in america no one is left out, no one is left behind. [applause] let it be our cause that when this child is able, she gives something back to her children, our community and our country. let it be our cause that if we give this child a country that is coming together and not coming apart. a country of boundless hopes and then list dreams, a country that once again with its people and inspires the world. let that be our cause, our commitment, and our new covenant. [applause]

my fellow americans, i end tonight where it all began for me -- i still believe in a place called hope. god bless you, and god bless america. >> i know my own imperfections. for example, i know sometimes people say i'm too serious and i talked to much substance in policy. maybe i have done that tonight. but the presidency is more than a popularity contest. is a day-by-day fight for people. sometimes you have to choose what is difficult or unpopular. sometimes you have to be willing to spend your popularity to pick the hard right over the easy wrong. [applause]

we are here tonight because we love our country. we are proud of what america is and what it can become. my fellow americans, we are here tonight united in one purpose, to make america stronger at home and respected in the world. [applause] a great american novelist wrote -- you can't go home again. he could not imagine this evening. tonight, i am home. home, where my public life began, and those who made it possible. home, where our nation's history was written in blood, idealism and hope.

home, where my parents showed me the values of family, faith and country. thank you. thank you, all of you, for a welcome home i will never forget. [applause] >> if you don't have a record to run on, you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. you make a big alexian about small things. and you know what? it has worked before. because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. when washington doesn't work, all those promises seem empty. if your hopes have been dashed again and again, it's best to stop hoping and settle for what you already know. i get it. likeliesti'm not the candidate for this office. i don't fit the typical

pedigree, and i haven't spent my career in all of washington. but i stand before you tonight because all across america, something is stirring. [applause] what the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. it is about you. [applause] >> a look back at past democratic nominees and past conventions. it is all part of the seas and video library. you can check it out at our convention hub. we're sharing tweets and asking you to post your own videos. we're asking delegates what they can expect here in north carolina. >> the most important issue for me is the financial situation

and the immigrant situation. thank you and have a great day. >> i am a delegate from burlington, vt., representing vermont. we're having a wonderful time and it's a great host city. i like to get a shot out to c- span and all my friends watching. >> my name is jay ferguson and abbott chairman of the democratic party and that pleased to be here in charlotte for the 2012 democratic convention. i'm supporting barack obama for president. >> i'm with the colorado delegation. the most important thing for me in this campaign as health care. i was really pleased we got a health care act passed. it's something we should all be supporting the president for that reason. >> i make colorado delegate at the convention. i'm but voting for president obama because of women's issues and latino issues and i'm very proud to be voting for him. >> you can share your comments

with us and we'll use it as part of our programming this week. it is part of c-span's convention hub. it is easy to get too. this stage is set inside the time warner cable arena where the gavel will come down late tomorrow afternoon for today's a sessions inside the arena and a three will take place at the bank of america stay in. let's take a look at the schedule. tomorrow evening, former president jimmy carter making a presentation via video. he accepted his party's nomination back in 1976. the keynote address by the mayor of san antonio. first lady michelle obama is in the arena today doing a series of interviews. she will be rehearsing her speech and deliver her remarks in prime time. one of the key senate races is massachusetts and democratic candidate is elizabeth warren. she will be addressing the

convention. a lot of attention on former president bill clinton. will be followed by the roll call of states which will happen after 0:00 eastern time. our coverage will continue with one of those traditions at party conventions. this is the 46 the democratic convention. just few blocks away at the blank -- the bank of america stadium, senator john kerry of massachusetts who was the 2004 democratic nominee. followed by the vice president and president barack obama, weather permitting inside the bank of america stadium. all live here on c-span and c- span radio. you can check it all out at c- span.org. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> a good morning, everyone. welcome to charlotte. we're excited to get things kick off. last week, governor romney and congressman ryan had the opportunity to lay out a vision of how we provide good, paying, sustainable jobs for the middle- class request since most are interested in. they failed on that opportunity. we look forward to having the conversation about where we were in 2008, and how we have built the economy and restored

economic security for the middle-class. with me this morning are -- is the ceo of the democratic convention, steve kerrigan. mayor fox of charlotte, our convention share, and a dead dnc secretary. between that group, we should be able to answer is not all of your questions. with that, i will turn it over to steve kerrigan. >> thank you. good morning everybody. as he said, in the ceo of the democratic national convention committee. on behalf of our entire team, i want to welcome you all here. we are excited to have you all at the convention. we hope you had a great time at the media party on saturday night. we hope will continue to have a good time in this incredibly vibrant and dynamic city. this is a culmination of more than one year of convention planning for us. planning that began with three

directives from the president. making sure that this convention is the first of its kind. think outside the box and find as many ways as possible to engage more americans in this historic event. on all three counts, i am proud to say, we have done just that. this is the most open and accessible convention in the history -- in history. we began by looking at different scenarios for logistics and -- we began by reaching out to the american people. we sent out an e-mail to all of our grass-roots supporters announcing that we are coming here to charlotte and asking how we can make this their convention. more than 2000 people wrote in and we read every single response. what they wanted was clear. they wanted more ways to participate in our democracy and this convention. beginning this afternoon, you'll start to see how we have made that request a reality. for the first time in convention history, we will kick off the

event open to the public. it is a family-friendly free of and. -- free event. it will give everyone a chance to see the beautiful city and the events that have never had before. the public is invited to attend all of our caucus meetings here at the convention center which will begin happening this morning and throughout the week. on thursday we will close out our convention activities with an event at the bank of america stadium where the president and vice-president well accept our nominations in front of tens of thousands of more who had the opportunity to see that moment in history. we are excited for that. while all of this is happening on the ground here in charlotte, we will be engaging people on-line like we have never done before.

we are on eight different digital media platforms. our first official convention mobil added. we are in many of those platforms where we have a presence. people will be able to follow all of our convention activities. we have transformed this into one that engages all americans and brings us together. we are excited for you to share that story all around the world of this great accessible convention. we look forward to working with you this week. i am pleased to have such great partnership in this community and leadership around the country with our campaign and our great convention share. the secretary who will lead us to the many proceedings. we could not have done the work that we have done over the last 18 months of planning this convention without partners right here on the ground. we have grown very close friends with my partner in all

of this planning who is an incredible leader not just in this community, but all around the country, that is your mayor. [applause] >> thank you, steve. your partnership and for that the democratic national convention committee and to the distinguished platform speakers, i want to thank you all for being here today. it is a pleasure to welcome you to charlotte. our city has been waiting a long time to host the convention. in fact, our state has been waiting a long time. it is been 150 years since an event was posted in the carolinas. if we are thrilled to have the democratic national convention here. thrilled to have our party fighting for the cell. we think that is an important statement for us to make as a party. before i go any further, i do have many thank yous to give.

particularly, our law enforcement officials at the local and state levels were working to make this convention what we want it to be. the have been an integral part of the planning process. we can not thank you them a enough -- enough -- thank -- we cannot thank them enough. ever since the first lady announced the site a year-and-a- half ago, we have been working, preparing, and excited about this wonderful event. the world will have an opportunity to experience a north carolina. a dynamic and diverse state that is his -- that has historically looked beyond the present to ensure the future. charlotte is part of that narrative. charlotte residents have put their best foot of forward. we all know what is part of the dna of this community, which is good southern hospitality.

we like to say hello to you when you walk down the street. we want you to have a great time while you are here. although this convention will wrap up on thursday, its legacy will live on long after the last confetti falls. it will be a testament to what we have done over the last couple of years to improve ourselves and our community for future generations. today you have an opportunity to see some of the projects we have been involved in, plus it will be the first festival that has been part of a convention. it is opening up to families. an opportunity to come and share and be part of a wonderful of them. james taylor, i am hoping he is singing some songs that bring the sun shine out. we are working to engage more people and supporters to this

convention. over the lt several months, i have got all through south carolina where we offer an opportunity for volunteers to volunteer to get one ticket to watch the president get the nomination. you could see the overwhelming interest and enthusiasm in this people. the lines or wrapped around the door to pick those tickets up. it has been incredible to see the energy for this president and this convention in north carolina. i hope this opportunity that you all have to see our city, see our state in action like this would give you an impression of north carolina that i think is true to form a. it is a progressive state that has shown resilience over time. it is an excellent backdrop for the president to accept the nomination to our party.

i will turn it over to the chair of our proceedings, the mayor of los angeles. [applause] >> ladies and gentleman, you just heard from a great leader here. in charlotte. and i think the face of the new south. when i first came here a few months ago, this is my third visit to charlotte. what i saw and what i have seen whenever i have been in the south is that southern hospitality that you speak of. what i also saw was a great vibrant city. i wish we had as many trees as you do. a great vibrant downtown. a great place to host the democratic convention. thank you, may, for your leadership.

the outgoing conference of mayors and early on, i saw not only is he a leader for the south, he is a leader for the nation. thank you, because a lot of people have asked me about the specifics of the convention and how things are going. i said, let me be clear about something. stephen and others have done all of the work. there are hundreds of volunteers -- thousands of volunteers, hundreds of staff members who have done the hard work. i will be responsible if something goes wrong. that is what happen when you got the big job, but these are the people that are going to ensure this is as smooth as possible. i want to thank you and all of the staff who have done an incredible job. it is an honor to gavel us in tomorrow. it is our turn.

after what we saw in tampa, and this is a convention that will be more than a little different. we will show them how it's really done, and i will tell you why. and this is the start of a new way to engage americans in the political process. you just heard how open and accessible we have been. this is a working convention. we took advantage of a number of people who were there. we registered some 25,000 volunteers. we got them involved. we will do a lot more than that this time around. we will engage everybody who is a part of this effort. that is the big difference between us. we're also going to present our vision and affirm our values. we will show the country that we are the party of openness, opportunity. the party of ingenuity. we will get down to business.

roll up our sleeves and get the country moving forward. today, we kick off our first day in charlotte. the convention will be the most adverse. we are very proud of that. the verse in every respect. certainly, much larger. you will see people from every walk of life. the rich, the poor, black, white, latino, asian -- muslims and jews. we are all celebrating this great america of hours. we believe that a parties reflection ought to present -- reflect its vision. it is the choice between a candidate who wants to build an economy from the middle out, reverses the one -- versus one

who wants to build it from the top. we will be highlighting american heroes from across the country. people who show grit in the face of great obstacles to move this country forward. we will also recount the last four years and tell the story of a president who led us through the worst economic crisis since the great depression. we will celebrate a president who rescued the auto industry. who passed historic health care and a student loan reforms. we want to articulate a path forward. president obama wants to reclaim the american dream. he promises with hard work you get a fair shot. it is about laying out a road map of where america needs to go for a lasting economic recovery. before i introduce our next speaker of mine, a longtime

leader of our party, in the tradition of the mayor of los angeles, because i said many times i would not be chair if i was not mayor, let me say a few words in spanish. [speaking spanish]

[speaking spanish] and it is now my pleasure, as i said, we worked together on a platform committee. i will not say how long. a woman who is been a real leader of our party. alice. [applause] >> it is an incredible honor to serve the secretary of the democratic national convention with my friend who have known for just a few years.

he is a true star and the democratic party. it is just going to be such a great convention under his leadership. thank you for what we are about to do and what we will do over the next three days. i cannot go three steps without someone saying, welcome to charlotte. it is just fun to be here. it is extraordinary how warm everyone has made us feel. how welcome. this is a true spirit here that i know is part of north carolina, part of the south, and i hope part of all of america. all of our delegates are so excited and pleased to be here. it is truly beautiful. everything looks great. we are going to have a good time here doing some serious work that is tremendously important to our country. before i go with some of the details and numbers, and i

promise there will not be too many. i would just like to share with you that i have participated in 10 presidential conventions. do not start adding up. but that is quite a lot. now because of that, i can say that this is truly the most diverse, the most open, the most transparent, the most just and exciting convention we are about to undertake that i have ever seen before. it is big. it is bold. it is beautiful. it is america and i am proud to be part of it. we have a lot of important work to do. part of that work, of course, is the nominating of our great president and vice presidents. part of that work is our platform, our credentials, our rules, all of which are

absolutely open and transparent. every single delegate will have a copy of our platform on their shares when they walked into the convention tomorrow. nothing secret. nothing behind the backs. we are proud of our president. if we are proud of what he has accomplished and equally importantly we are proud of the plans he is laying out -- specific plans, for the next four years. they are in our platform and he will speak of them to all the american people when he accepts our nomination on thursday night. there are -- here come some numbers. there are 5556 delegates. there are 407 alternates. and i would like to just hall -- just highlight a few special parts of our process that are important, i think, to our

party, and important to our country. each state party develops a state plan where they to outreach as well as traditional average to everyone who is part of america. so, for example, our african- american delegates, who are so passionate about our president and our country, as all of us are, have risen from 24% in 2008, to 27% in 2012. our hispanic and latino delegates, there are over 100 more hispanic and latino delegates this convention then there were in 2008. that is just an example. we have also reached out to some unique groups for 2012. to our veterans, to our seniors, to our workers, and particularly, to our young voters. we have a record number of youth 285 ofers -- 644 and

those young voters are actually students. in many cases, this is their very first convention, their first political experience, and we, frankly, will benefit by their participation. if we will learn from them because they are our future. our oldest delegate -- no, it is not me. just want to put that out there. our oldest delegate is e-l-d-a- n-a of johnson -- johnson of terry, mississippi. if she was born in 1914. pretty amazing and wonderful. something else to aspire to. yes, indeed. our youngest delegate is samuel gray. he was born in 1994. yes, he will be 18 by election day.

is a terrific? great. terrific?e great. i did want to mention that we have, already, and i'm sure there are more being built and put together all over america, over 4000 watch parties. that means that to multiplied all the delegates and alternates and guests and committee members and credentials committee members, and rules committee members, and volunteers, and workers, and folks who are not able to come to the big stadium with thousands of thousands of activists. and interested voters. and people who care about our country all across america through all of these parties in every single state. i just wanted to share with you

that this is not just about us here in charlotte. though, that is wonderful for those of us who are able to be here, but for the rest of america. thank you, again, for letting me give you some of the numbers that are important for us to be here with all of you. we're now going to open this press conference. >> [inaudible] to other battleground states across the nation? we please address the politically strategic important point of picking north carolina and how it impacts the election and other southern battleground states? >> thank you for the question. i am, of course, july 10, that charlotte was picked independently of the politics.

-- i am, of course, delighted, that charlotte was picked independently -- independently of the politics. he was the first democrat to win north carolina since jimmy carter. there is a special affinity between the president and n.c.. his work to support of veterans, his work to support women, his work to support remanufacturing back onto american shores, and the work he has done to put infrastructure in a state like north carolina that is one of the fastest-growing states in the country and a city like charlotte which is the fastest growing metro region in the country. i think that the people of north carolina understand this president has had their back and at the end of the day will have his back. there is also the opportunity that the campaign and the convention had used to mobilize

north carolina and the south for this convention. i mentioned the program which was an effort to encourage people to volunteer for the campaign in exchange for an opportunity to come and watch the president accept the nomination. the program has been widely successful. when we open up the convention and said to people, of the few want to come to the convention, off the response has been overwhelming. that has been the response on the ground here in north carolina. when you come into the south, everyone in the south is part of a convention like this. there is also a ripple a fact of being in north carolina. we border virginia and some of the other states that are around us that could be competitive in this race. i think, particularly, north carolina and virginia will be states to watch in this election. i will add one other point.

north carolina was tight end 2008. it will be tight this year. i do not think it will be an easy state to win, but it is a state the president absolutely can win. he has a ground force in north carolina that is unrivaled and mitt romney has spent millions of dollars in north carolina and cannot seem to get any distance. i think that is an indication that this race is going to go all the way down to the wire. >> good morning. this convention, as i understand it, is the first one to bar corporate contributions to the host committee and the lobbyists' contributions to the court -- to the committee and capped individual, in concert -- campaign contributions. of course, there is some public

money that goes into the official committee. it is my understanding that there has been two different nonprofit set up to help this. do you think that experiment has been a success or a failure this year. >> thank you. that is a great question. i would say it is a success. we have over 80 times the number of donors to this convention than any convention in history. it is an effort to continue with our goal of engaging with people all around the country and giving them an opportunity to invest in it. our grassroots program alone has engaged thousands around the country who want to be a part of this. i think it does and a huge success. we are thrilled with the results. you will see an amazing convention facility. the stadium will be beautiful as well, all because of the effort that we put forward at the very beginning of this planning process which was the

president's goal of making this open and the most successful in history. it did not mean just making sure we allow more people to come here. it meant making sure we allow people to be a part of it in any way that they wanted to. it was a huge step in that direction. we're thrilled with the way it worked and the participation and engagement we had with people around the country. we are thrilled to have done it this way. >> i have three very quick questions. you said there are 100 more hispanic delegates. can you tell us the total? he said there are 4000 watch party spirit of the offer thursday night? and when will you be releasing the schedule of when -- can we find out who is speaking on which night? and also, charlie, when is he

speaking? >> for questions. the first question was how many total number of hispanic delegates. that was 2008 -- let me get that for you. i only have the percentages here and ballpark numbers. the reason that i say that is because of until this morning, until monday, delegations can change if people are unable to be here. we have some last-minute changes. we know there are approximately 100 more than there were in 2008. we know the percentage has gone up by at least 1%, possibly more from 2008. but like to give you the exact number and not have any questions later about being

inaccurate. >> how many were there in 2008? >> in 2008, i do not have that number. i promise you that as soon as we have that we will be releasing all of that information which we always do at every convention. while i'm on diversity, i do not know how did this, but i forgot to say that 50% of our delegates are women. 50%, which is pretty darn special. if i did want to be sure i added that. i also want to add one other thing, a personal note. at the rules committee on saturday, we chose our sergeant at arms. he is john lewis. for john lewis to be the sergeant at arms of the democratic national convention to someone like me who was proud to march with martin luther king is just an amazing statement

about america and i am so proud that he would assert as the sergeant at arms for this democratic national convention. now, you had a second, third, and fourth question as i recall. >> we will get out to everyone on the list and make sure you have signed up for the convention press list as well, not just the campaign list. we will give you the speakers by about 10:00 p.m. the night before. if you're getting pressure from editors, we're happy to negotiate. right here in the front. >> the first one is what kind of weather would motivate you to move to president's speech on thursday inside and the second is, a lot of delegates talk about two dozen a as an exuberant and enthusiastic and event. if you expect the same up -- i

talk about 2008 as an exuberant and enthusiastic advent. do expect the same enthusiasm? >> we are planning to go rain or shine. we monitor it on a regular basis and want to make sure everybody is safe. if we will make a decision based on that. right now, it is rain or shine. if we cannot be more excited. we have thousands of people signed up to get the community credentials. we are thrilled to be able to welcome tens of thousands of more people to the stadium than ever before. we're going to do everything we can to stay there. and your second question was enthusiasm. i think have just answered that with the fact that there were half mile long lines. the excitement and passion that folks have, not just for this convention, but for this

president and the causes that he believes in and champions, the vision he has for our future is palpable here normally. it is a lot more so this week. i think the energy, enthusiasm, and excitement for what is at stake in this election has really corrected the enthusiasm. we are seeing great enthusiasm and excitement. >> it is a question for the mayor. could you please elaborate more about the general meeting, the prominent role that hispanic leaders are having in this convention where you are the chair and he will give the keynote speaker. how this translates in practical terms in the politics of the democratic party. >> i think a little different than the republicans. we will have won a lot more

diligence is the answer. latino delegates, african- americans, women, as you heard -- asians, people from every walk of life. i think you'll see, in addition to having very prominent roles, keynote speaker, this convention that our platform, we have a platform that calls for comprehensive immigration reform. these are our values. if you can see a reflection of int, you'll see a reflection the president's record. issues, whether it is the 9 million latinos that will benefit from the affordable care act, the 150,000 latinos who got

student loans because of the work of president obama. the 2 million latinos who were pulled out of poverty the face of our party will reflect the values of our party. this open and accessible convention will reaffirm that. >> can someone tell me what role has the university of california played in funding the obama campaign and also in cooperation with the obama campaign? >> thousands of individual contributions from students. i'm not quite sure of the answer to that question. are you looking at a specific

effort here in charlotte or? >> there's a report that the university of california is one of the largest funders to the obama campaign in terms of funding. >> i think that probably speaks to the their graduates or students at the university who contributed. and mayor, do you want to speak about what you're seeing in the ground in terms of support? >> in the university of california region and a graduate of ucla. go bruins. there are a few of us, i guess. we cannot talk a lot about what is going on in california, but california is strongly in support of president obama. when people ask me, when i am in

washington, d.c., or campaigning for the president, why would the mayor of los angeles be in florida or mexico, i said, it is simple. it matters to the people of los angeles and california who is in the white house. we believe that we have benefited greatly from the policies of president obama. we believe strongly that the bush policies set us back. we all know that president obama will win in california. we have tens of thousands of volunteers all through california who be calling into nevada. there will be calling into colorado. there will be calling into every state and getting on the phone -- hi, i am a neighbor here in california. here is why you have to vote. there are two pass ahead. half a crystal clear choice. one man, our president, wants to

invest in the middle class. another one will take it back. the failed policies that got us out of the worst recession and failed policies. there is a great deal of enthusiasm. i hear a lot of questions about that. let me say this. if i do not know who they're talking to. talk to some of the volunteers here. there are kids. older folks like me -- like us. [laughter] they are here. they are excited. my kids are coming. initially, i said, just come, this is a big day for bad. they want to work. they want to knock on doors. they want to do with they can to make this a successful convention. there is a lot of enthusiasm in california. i saw it in new mexico. i saw it in nevada. i see it here in north carolina.

i sort of it -- i saw it in texas. >> last question, right here. >> of dallas was reporting this morning that governor romney's acceptance speech was the lowest rated acceptance speech since 1996. can you talk about what the president police as an incumbent if his acceptance speech can help him win? and what from where he is thinking about in terms of his speech? is it done? and what measurement he would use to measure the success of it. >> a share. @ money start by addressing the piece about the gallup poll and governor romney's speech. i think most americans who tune into the convention's are looking for answers to the questions about how we're going to restore economic stability

for the middle-class. the middle class has been stretched thin. they want to know how we will create a good-paying a sustainable jobs for the middle class and make sure america's wins a race to the top. the republican convention did not address those questions. we heard the same recycled and widely debunked attacks against the president. we have been hearing them for our wheat spirit they put congressman ryan on stage to attach medicare savings that he has in his own budget. we are going to use this convention to answer those questions. we will have an honest conversation about where we were in 2008. we were losing 800 jobs a month. 3.6 million jobs lost before the president took office. manufacturing was in a decline. the auto industry was on the brink.

we have made progress. businesses have created more than 4.5 million jobs. gm is reborn. we have created more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs after that sector had been in decline. but now we need to lay out the pillars of how we're going to restore economic security for the middle-class. that involves paying down the deficit in a balanced way. that involves building the economy from the middle class out by investing in things like education, research development, and infrastructure. every speaker chosen will address how we will build the economy from the middle class out whether it is one of the american heroes, who overcame adversity during challenging times for the nation. the minute contribution of rebuilding our economy. you start to see them on the president's ruling trip. you will see them again today in ohio. a gm worker who was laid off but

stuck with it and has now been rehired. the president believes that his speech will be the opportunity not to just talk about where we have come from, but to lay out that division. that is the question on most americans' minds. the speech is not final yet. it is something that he will be working on throughout the trip leading into charlotte. certainly, he has laid out and the questions he will answer. i think this race has been closed and competitive all along. the rnc chairman said he anticipated romney would give a visible bombed out of their convention. that has not happened. even the polling in florida, where they had their convention, has remained steady. this has been a tight race in key states over the past year

and a half. but i think if you are an undecided voter out there, you want to see that vision for creeping sustainable jobs for the middle class. that is what the president will lay out this week. i think that will bring a resolution in many voters' minds that they would like to continue that progress instead of going back to the same economic policies that caused the crisis in the first place. i think we will have to wrap their. thank you, everybody. we will be seeing you soon. >> one of the speakers we heard from during this news conference was charlotte mayor anthony fox. we will hear from him again tomorrow morning when he is our guest on washington journal. tonight, more analysis from the road to the white house and the preview of the democratic convention with politico. that will be live on c-span starting at 6:00 eastern. we will also take you live to louisiana where president obama is taking a break to visit

damage from hurricane isaac. you can watch him alive, 35 miles of river from the city of new orleans, at 7:20 eastern. and first lady michelle obama testing of the podium today. she was on the floor of the time warner are rina practicing her speech that she will be delivering tomorrow night. take a look here. [no audio]

>> some of the media taking a look as michelle obama checks out where she will deliver her speech.

also, betsy white might take that podium as well. changed or is circulating a petition for the 90-year-old actors to appear as a counter to clint eastwood's address at the republican convention. a look at the streets of charlotte, north carolina, just outside of the sites. this is carolinafest. just a few blocks away from where the speakers will be gathered tomorrow.

>> people enjoying the carolinafest. we will have our cameras looking at the stream on the ground. the democratic convention, of course, begins tomorrow. the presentation of the parti's platform to kick things off. the delegates have a final vote on the platform. we will have a video address from former-president, jimmy carter. on wednesday, a elizabeth warren is one of the speakers and the nominating speech by former- president bill clinton, followed by the roll call of states. speakers john kerry, senator and of massachusetts, a vice president biden, and president obama. we heard earlier from los angeles mayor, antonio villaraigosa. he is the chairman of the democratic national convention

committee. he says defeating the republicans is the best way to end gridlock. he spoke to mike allen. we will take a look. way past my bedtime. you were late. >> i left way pastor bedtime as well. >> it is great to have the. what will people know after barack obama -- about barack obama after this convention that they don't now? >> i think people know a lot

about president obama. i think we will remind him what he has done. what he has done to put us in a better place. what he is done to stop the hemorrhaging of 8000 jobs when he took office. 3.5 million jobs over a 1 month period of time. what he has done is stopping the hemorrhaging. a save the auto industry. turn at gm from a bankrupt company to the leading auto manufacturer of the world. >> tell the story of the last

few years. 29 consecutive months of job growth that is up more than in the eight years before. there will be other stories in their. a great family man. a man who loves his wife and children. someone who cares about the middle class. and some of what we'll be talking about, i guess. >> when the lights come up, what do you at the leadership level conceived of this convention that could be done different than in 1996 or 2000? >> thank you this to be the most open and accessible convention. the most diverse. i think that after the 6000 delegates, we probably had about 4000 or so.

there will be from every walk of life. today, we are celebrating working women. there will be thousands of people in a family friendly festival. ishink what you'll see 65,000 people from every walk of life. you will see people from every corner of the earth who come to this great country. it will also be a working convention. we understand we're going to get out spent. what we have done is invested in the last year over the most comprehensive effort of get out the vote in our history. we have been recruiting people.

in denver, recorded about 25,000 volunteers. we expect to do that multiple times. >> when you talk about recruiting, you're talking about collecting data. >> knocking on doors. getting people to contribute. getting them to do what it takes to get people out to vote. >> labor day -- your roots are in the labor movement. there is a story on the front page of "the boston globe" today about unions being down. there has been a clear trend in that direction. they are a big part of the cash register of the democratic party. does that worry you? >> let me say something about labor. i came out of labor, as you said. i was 25 years old, an

organizer for the teachers' union. you said "muscle and cash register," but also the heart and soul. let's think about, on labor day, what made america great. we have a middle-class and they helped to move in that middle- class. they helped that spread across the board, the people who work hard, to be rewarded. yes, major constituents in our party, and yes, i think i.t. is important for us to stand up for collective bargaining rights, it is important for us to stand up for the notion that people work hard and ought to be rewarded for it.

>> but membership is going down. what do you do about that? not think you -- well, i'm in the labor movement anymore -- >> but as a leader of the democratic party, you affect each other. >> they do. but i think you organize, frankly. there are major efforts in organizing members. you have to focus on new markets -- you'll see them take on technology, changes in an industry, and the opportunity will come going into those new markets.

>> so the unions themselves should be more creative? >> i think many of them are being more creative. let's be honest -- wisconsin, people are trying to break unions. california, with prop 32, pretends to be an effort to stop a big money from special interests, and it is only focused on labor. it does not impact the super pacs or corporate america. let me say something about all that. i am the mayor of the second- largest city in the country, and as you probably know, i've had my own challenges -- of course you know, because you know everything. i've had my own challenges, and i a visit to public sector

unions that we have to understand in these tough budget times that to protect your quality of life and benefits going in the future, we have got to work together to redefine benefits that we have, to make sure that they are sustainable going into the future. i'm a big supporter of pension reform. gov. christie -- republican governor, and i'm a democrat -- his speech -- >> chris christie? >> he did not talk about his candidate very often. he talks a lot about pension reform. they went from 70% employee contribution to 5% increase for

seven years. i went from 6 to 11 permanently, and i'm proposing that we tied the retirement age to 67, and i say that because there was a day -- we lived to 65, 70, and now we are 75 to 80 -- the president in his budget address the issue of pension reforms. but there are some democrats who are unwilling to do that, and that is a mistake. you can be pro-worker, pro- union, but also say that we have to find a balance here. that is the difference between democrats and republicans. i don't see it the republicans

taking on their interests the way that democratic leaders have done. >> public employees in general -- >> teachers in particular. every decision is driven by seniority. we can honor our teachers and pay them more, and we can hold people accountable. i'm not a partisan -- democrat with a small d, and i love this country, and i'm for president obama very strongly because he is charting the right path -- by the way, a centrist path, not like what you see on the other side.

you read the republican party platform, you close your eyes for a moment, and could easily be 1812, with the things that they are proposing. that is very different from us. we are party that is challenging herself. not everybody, i agree. i think we've got to do more about it. one of the reasons why it has gone too far the right. >> you are just back from enemy territory. you were at the convention in tampa. you had as city hall at cnn grill.

>> they called me the skunk at the party. [laughter] the first thing i said, i meant that, because it is true -- i know you expect me to come after the republicans, but we are in the middle of a growing hurricane. as much as we want to criticize one another, let's be clear about this -- democrats and republicans agree on this, that priority number one is the health and safety of the people in that hurricane. we don't talk a lot about the fact that mary landrieu, a democrat, was working with bobby jindal, a republican, who was working with president obama very seamlessly to protect the health and safety. we led the fight, but we also got to acknowledge that there is a lot of places where there is common area, working together. but i was there to compare and contrast, and i did. they will be here as well, and

we welcome them. i used to be chair in spanish of the democratic party convention, as speaker of the california state assembly -- [speaking spanish] i was speaking spanish for a second, even though my first language is english. when i was speaker of the california assembly, i put democrats and republicans together. i had to have a caucus in my party after i announced it, because the democrats did not like it. the republicans got up and excoriated me because they said we were trying to spy on them. maybe you'll figure out that you have something in common, that your kids go to the soccer game, that you went to a town hall and got screamed at. we hch